Is it smart to leave my IRA to a trust instead of directly to heirs?

Sometimes, but it requires care. Naming a trust as your IRA beneficiary gives you control – useful if heirs are minors, financially immature, have special needs, or you're in a blended family and want to protect the assets. The drawback is taxes and complexity: under the SECURE Act, most trusts must still distribute the IRA within 10 years, and if the trust accumulates rather than passes through that income, it can be taxed at the compressed trust tax brackets that hit the top rate very fast. A properly drafted "conduit" or "accumulation" trust can manage this, but generic trust language can cause the entire IRA to become taxable far sooner than intended. For a disabled beneficiary, a properly structured trust can also preserve lifetime stretch treatment. Because the rules are unforgiving, never name a trust as IRA beneficiary without an attorney who specializes in retirement-account trusts.