A plan participant dies....for discussion sake he had already satisfied all of the necessary requirements to elect 10-year averaging treatment.

The beneficiary is a family trust, not the spouse (which I think was mistake number 1).

10-year averaging does not turn out to be a worthwhile election for the trust. However, my question is whether the ability to use 10-year averaging election flows down to the spouse since she is the beneficiary of the family trust?

My preliminary reseach sugggests that answer is no and that 10-year averaging only passes down from a trust to a beneficiary in instances of a grantor trust.

If anyone else has some insight, I thank you in advance.

Mark.