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If, however, you leave this retirement account to anyone other than your spouse—your children, your mother, or your trust—those beneficiaries have got to wipe the account clean within five years. Even if they do not need the money, they have got to take it out and pay taxes on it within that five-year period. (There are a few, rare exceptions to this, but the recommendation still holds true.) If your trust document says that everything you have is to go to your spouse, so you therefore leave the trust as your primary beneficiary on your retirement accounts, your wife will also have to wipe this account clean within five years; she will not have the right to take it over as she did when she personally was named the beneficiary. This is a very important point for married couples to be aware of—if you have a trust already set up and you have retirement accounts, make sure that if you are married, your primary beneficiary is your spouse and not the trust. The trust can be the secondary beneficiary, the one that gets everything if the primary beneficiary has died.

Trust or, or settler: The person who creates the trust
who owns the property that will be put into the trust. In the case history just presented, Sarah was her own original trustee.
Trustee: The person who controls the assets in the trust. Most often the trustor is also the trustee. When you set up a trust you do not have to give away your power over your assets. Most people continue taking care of everything just as they did before the trust existed. The only difference will be your title. If you and a spouse hold property as joint tenants or in community property, you can do the same in the trust, and you can both be trustees. In fact, you can have as many trustees as you want, though having more than two is not usually recommended. Keep in mind that the trustee will have the say over what happens with everything in the trust, so choose your trustees carefully, even if you are still going to be a trustee yourself.
Co-trustee: Another person who has the authority to manage and invest the assets of the trust, although all trustees must agree to financial or investment changes. Parents often choose to make their children co-trustees, upon the deterioration or disability of the parents. Couples usually set up their trusts so that they’re both co-trustees, and therefore both must agree to any changes.
Successor trustee: This is the person who steps in to make decisions about the assets in the trust if and only if the trustee or co-trustees cannot or do not want to act in the decision making process. Annie was Sarah’s successor trustee and became her trustee once Sarah no longer wanted the burden of decision making.
Current beneficiaries: The person or persons for whom all of this is being held in trust. Sarah was the current beneficiary of her own trust.
Remainder beneficiaries: The person or persons who will inherit everything in the trust after the current beneficiary (who is usually the trustor as well) dies. In our case history Annie was a remainder beneficiary. Sarah had wanted William to inherit some assets outright, so he was a remainder beneficiary as well. Peter, to whom Sarah had left the $10,000, was another remainder beneficiary.