No matter the size of your estate, a revocable trust is the best option to help you manage and optimize the planning of your estate. Whether it is to allow your children to manage assets for you in your later years, to help protect assets you leave your children from creditors, or to make administration of your estate easier at your death, particularly if you own real estate in more than one state, a revocable trust plan may be the best option for you.

Cathleen Schmidt Gormley is uniquely suited to discuss the various types of trusts and how they can benefit you and your family in planning your estate.

CHANGING BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS

Estate planning is an ongoing process in which updating beneficiary designations may need to be done periodically. Keep in mind that certain assets such as qualified plans (401(k), 403(b), 403(a) and TSP plans), IRAs, bank accounts, and life insurance policies allow you to select a specific beneficiary.

When you designate a beneficiary, those assets will pass to the named beneficiary upon your death, without the need for probate. In such case, they will not be governed by your Will or your Trust Agreement.

It is crucial to review these designations periodically, and as your life changes, to make sure you update them accordingly. Life events such as marriage, divorce, death, and the birth of children to your growing family, or a falling out with an adult child or a sibling, will have an affect on your beneficiary designations.

It is common practice to have your estate plan prepared and file it away in a drawer for safekeeping, where the documents sit for decades. When someone designates a beneficiary on their qualified plan when they are hired, or when they name their spouse as a beneficiary on their life insurance policy when they first get married, as the years go by these designations may be long-forgotten. It’s not unusual for a person to make a designation early in life and forget about updating it as their life situation changes.

The Law Office of Cathleen Schmidt Gormley, P.C. cannot stress enough how important beneficiary designations are, especially since a large portion of your wealth is often controlled by beneficiary designations. That is why, with every estate plan we prepare, we review these designations with our clients in detail. Call or email us for a consultation.