Will Your Beneficiaries Benefit as You Intend?

A wise steward plans for the future. That means not only setting aside money for your retirement years but also planning for what happens to that money — and your other assets — when you die.

Beneficiary designations, along with property titles, take precedence over a will. That means you can pass significant assets to your spouse or other beneficiaries without having to go through “probate” — the sometimes lengthy legal process for validating a will. Properly executed beneficiary and title decisions can keep assets away from creditors, reduce estate expenses, speed up distribution of assets, or even purposely slow down distribution for situations in which it would be beneficial to do so.

Definitely not one-size-fits-all

Many options exist for naming beneficiaries and titling assets — too many to cover in this brief article. To make the best decisions, consult with a financial advisor and/or an attorney who has expertise in this area. The information below will give you an overview of some of the options available.

Keep information up-to-date

There is much to take into account when designating beneficiaries and titling assets. It is wise to make these decisions with the aid of a financial and/or legal advisor. Further, we suggest you create a list or spreadsheet, recording each of your major assets, who the beneficiaries are, how property is titled, and the date last verified. Making such a listing will aid you in handling these issues now, and it will be helpful later when an executor is called upon to settle your affairs.

Life is filled with change (children are no longer minors, beneficiaries may have died or divorced, etc.), so review your titling decisions and beneficiary list every few years. Doing a little bit of paperwork every so often may save a lot of headaches — and possibly heartaches — down the road.