Coordinating Your Estate Plan

Beneficiary Designations are a powerful away to efficiently pass assets to your beneficiaries in things such as 401k's, retirement accounts, etc.  It allows assets to pass directly to the beneficiary without having to pass through the potentially costly, burdensome and, more often not, time consuming probate process.

However, this benefit is not without some potential cost.  These beneficiary designations override any instructions in your will.  Unless properly organized, they can lead to some unforeseen and undesired results.

For example, if an individual in a second marriage has his or her first spouse named as the beneficiary of a financial account, and fails to make a beneficiary desigation change after re-marrying, the benefits form that account may pass to the deceased ex-spouse.  A result most would qualify as disastrous.

The Wall Street Journal recently put out an article on this subject and the dollar amounts at risk for potential beneficiary errors is staggering:

Read the full text of the article HERE.