Beneficiary Designations

It is very important to make sure the beneficiary designations on your retirement plans, life insurance policies, certificates of deposit, etc. are dovetailed to complement the estate plan you put in place. If you do not follow through with changing the beneficiaries of these types of assets when you create your estate planning documents, then you might as well throw what you have created in file 13 (the trashcan) because more than likely the plan you put in place in your estate planning documents will not be funded on your death. This will be the result because your assets will be aimed to individuals other than the individuals you name in your Will and/or trust, or the assets will be distributed outright to such individuals instead of being placed in an asset protection trust which would have protected such assets from personal judgment creditors of the beneficiaries, kept the assets inside the trust as separate property in the event the beneficiary obtains a divorce at a later date, and continue such assets in trust for the benefit of each beneficiary's descendants thereby avoiding probate and estate tax in such beneficiary's estate.