MARK KOHLERMain Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, LLC · Owner at Main Street Professionals, LLC

The truth about spousal rollovers and trusts

11 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this video, Mark Kohler advises viewers on how to structure beneficiary designations for retirement accounts to maximize control and flexibility. He recommends naming your spouse as the primary beneficiary to enable a spousal rollover, allowing the spouse to transfer the account directly into their own retirement plan. For the contingent beneficiary line, he suggests designating a revocable living trust (e.g., Green Tree Trust) so that if the account holder is unmarried or passes away without a spouse, the assets flow into the trust. The trust then governs distribution—such as staggered payouts at ages 25 and 35, or funds earmarked for a first home, college tuition, or rehabilitation—ensuring the account holder’s estate planning intentions are carried out through the retirement account.

Chapters

It's pretty clear here. I'm going to recommend that you name your spouse as primary beneficiary. That's cool. That's going to make it easy for your spouse to do what's called a spousal rollover and just move it into their own retirement account. But with the contingent beneficiary line, I want you to put revocable living trust, Green Tree Trust, whatever the name of your trust is, because now if you're unmarried at the time, or for those of you that are single, it'll go into your trust. And now the trust sets forth the rules. It can go to my kid in stages. A third when they're 25, a third when they're 35. I want you to hold it in trust and help them buy their first home or finish college or get out of rehab or whatever. And so now all the rules of your trust that you took so much time to use and design, now they're going to all be implemented with your retirement account.