Preparing Beneficiary Forms

Pass it on well with Caring Counsel & Personal Solutions

Your traditional estate planning documents (your WIll or Revocable Living Trust) do not control the disposition of all of your assets at your death. Certain assets, such as retirement accounts, life insurance, and sometimes annuities, will pass by the accounts’ beneficiary designation. These assets may require special planning to reflect your wishes.

We work with you to ensure that all of your assets and accounts are properly titled and have the proper beneficiary designation to put your estate plan into effect. For example:

If you have minor children or grandchildren, we will work with you to ensure that your retirement accounts will be placed into trust for them in a way that preserves their income tax deferral benefits.

If you have life insurance, we can help you minimize your death tax burden (if any) and ensure that your surviving spouse or heirs have cash available after your death to pay final expenses and debts.

We will carefully review the ownership of your assets to minimize or completely avoid any probate proceedings, if possible.

Several of our clients have retirement accounts or life insurance that make up the bulk of their estates, so we put a very high priority on ensuring that your beneficiary designations are handled with care.