Stautz Law

Tag: Non-Probate Transfer

  • Transfer on Death Deeds: Partial Interests

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    Good morning, folks. It’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law. I’m back today with another talk about an Indiana estate planning and probate topic. Today we’re talking about transfer on death deeds of partial interests, by which I mean also joint tenancies.

    Overview of Transfer on Death Deeds

    So I’ve talked before about Indiana transfer on death deeds, You should go look at that video if you haven’t seen it yet. Basically, a transfer on death deed is an instrument, a deed that you record on top of your existing house deed or property deed, and it adds an automatic beneficiary to your deed. That way, on your passing, there’s a non-probate transfer: which means it’s automatic, it happens right away. You don’t need to go to probate court.  

    Automatic non-probate transfer of the property from you to whoever you named.  

    (But it doesn’t create any, you know, present ownership in your beneficiary, right? So they can’t do anything about it. You just put the name on there.)  

    Scenarios with Partial Ownership Interests

    Okay, so that fundamental instrument is great. The most common scenario is definitely people who own their house and are giving it to either their kids or a family member. And usually people own their real estate fee simple outright. They just, they own it, it’s theirs.  

    Sometimes though, you see properties, especially family properties that have been passed down, or business properties that were acquired as part of a group of investors, where you’ve got a partial interest, some sort of joint tenancy. And again, I’ve got a separate, more extensive discussion of how joint tenancies work.  

    Transfer on Death Deeds and Partial Interests

    But you know, if you’ve got a one quarter share in a property, you know, or you’ve got a joint tenancy with someone else, Can you still use a transfer on death deed?  

    The answer is yes, you can use a transfer on death deed for partial interests, just like you can for like a complete fee simple interest, and the rules for that are right in the transfer. on Death Property Act. So that’s Indiana Code 32-17-14-11(e), [edit: I misspoke, it’s subsection “e” not “a”] and then it’s a list of one, two, three, four, five, six of what happens in different situations. So you can go look at the law for yourself.  

    I think the interesting ones are a tenancy in common. That’s where you just own some fraction. If you put a transfer on death deed on your fraction, it’s just it operates as to your interest. I.C. 32-17-14-11(e)(4). So if you own a quarter of your property, you can put a transfer on death deed for your quarter of the property. Doesn’t affect anyone else.  

    With husbands and wives, spouses who have this special “tenants by the entirety,” you can’t do it unless both spouses join. I.C. 32-17-14-11(e)(1). So you can’t just decide one day to add a beneficiary designation for like you, the husband’s beneficiaries or whatever, both spouses have to agree.  

    But the rules is different for a joint tenancy that’s not spouses. It’s for a joint tenancy, which often includes this right of survivorship, pretty cool if you’re the survivor, I suppose, recording a transfer on death deed breaks the joint tenancy and turns it into a tenancy in common. I.C. 32-17-14-11(e)(2). So you lose the right of survivorship. That’s quite a little trick in the law there.  

    It’s never come up for me yet, but I’m young. Maybe it will someday. So be careful and look at it.  

    Conclusion: TOD Still an Option

    But just because you own some fractional interest in a property doesn’t mean transfer on death deeds are off the table. And that’s good because they’re a really flexible planning tool. I’ve talked elsewhere about how and when you might want to use them, but the type of tenancy you have doesn’t necessarily stand in your way.  

    So if you want to talk about this or any other Indiana estate planning and probate topic, give me a call or e-mail. You’re on my website. You’ve got my contact information and I serve, you know, central Indiana and especially points south, so Indianapolis, Marion County. Greenwood, Johnson County, Montgomery County, all of that, Shelbyville. So give me a call and we can talk more, but I hope this general information of Indiana law was useful to you. Bye now.

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  • To Do List for New Parents

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    Editorial Comment

    This talk contains a LOT of references to estate planning concepts that you may or may not be familiar with. In order to keep it to a reasonable length, I didn’t explain every concept I mention. In the transcript below, I’ve tried to link out to my other resources on each topic. So you should be able to follow along and click through wherever you need more context!

    Enjoy!  

    Transcript

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    Hi folks, it’s Andy Stautz at Stautz. I’m back for a follow-up talk about an Indiana estate planning topic. So just before this, I recorded a talk on why new parents need a will. So you should watch that or read it. This follow up is more of a to do list. Like OK, what all is on your plate here in terms of estate planning?  

    Item #1: Get a Will

    OK so, you know, “get a will” is a pretty easy piece of instruction: either call an estate planning attorney or go to one of the do-it-yourself things and do it yourself. (At your own risks there.)  

    Item #2: Get your ancillary documents: POA, Healthcare, etc.

    Also, though, there are some other related things, so #2: think about your ancillary documents. So not the will itself, but you know, financial power of attorney, a healthcare advance directive, right? It makes sense to think about all of it at once and as one package. I’ve talked about those documents elsewhere. I’m not going to go through what they do right now.  

    Item #3: Talk About Your Values

    That’s one thing: to do a values conversation, right? When you’re doing planning, you need to talk to your spouse. And your children. I mean, obviously we’re talking about a situation where you’ve got a baby, so maybe not there, but you know, talk to your spouse. What do we want it to look like? You know, what are we worried about? What can we prevent? What are our values? End of life decisions. Worst case scenario decisions: who raises our kid if we’re gone decisions? You know. Make it a date night. Mom can drink again so you know, open a bottle of wine and sit down and talk about it. It will be good.  

    Item #4: Check Beneficiary Designations

    Other non-will, non-probate non-”other documents.” But just like getting your property affairs in order. So a big one is beneficiary designations on your retirement accounts. For a lot of young couples I know, for us, right, our brokerage account, you know 401(k), IRA, that’s the biggest single piece of property we’ve got. And if you’ve got a beneficiary designation, it’s not a probate asset. It’s not controlled by your will.

    So log on to your portal, your vanguard, your fidelity, whatever, and make sure it’s correct. Because some of those providers automatically, like, cancel your old designations if you get married or if you have a kid, but not all of them do so, so go check. Make sure it’s who you want it to be. You know, probably spouse as your primary, and then your backup might be, I don’t know, your parents, if they’re still living. You know, you can do it to a trust if you’re doing sophisticated planning, but we’re just talking like basics. Make sure it’s correct. Same thing with life insurance. If you carry life insurance.  

    Item #5: Figure Out How Your Assets are Titled

    And then the other thing would be, relatedly, organizing title. Make sure you know how you own things, so if you if one of you owned a house before you got married, you know, are you both on the mortgage? Are you both on the deed? What about your cars? Same thing. Because anything you own jointly with your spouse also avoids probate and just goes to your spouse. So you might want that, you might not want that. I’ve talked in other videos about how joint tenancies work and what they might do or not do.  

    How Much Work Is This?

    But just kind of, in my mind, when I tell new parents “get a will, you need a will,” it’s not just, you know, your three page document with your signature on it. It should be a good reminder to kind of, like, get everything in order, right? Just sit down and do it. Really. It might only take a few hours. Honestly like 2 hours maybe. Call an attorney. Hey, when do you have a consultation? next week? you go to that. That’s… call that one hour. And then you go home and you do your homework. And you fix all your beneficiary designations and you make a binder. Let’s call that another hour, and then you come back and then you sign the will and your documents. Right, like two hours, 2 1/2 hours.  

    And it will save you tons and tons of time and money and stress. UM. Whether or not you “need it,” right? It’s being able to sleep. It’s knowing. OK, my kids are fine. I’ve done what I can do to make that easy for them.  

    Conclusion: You’ll Feel Better, I Promise

    So that that’s kind of your list, you know, get the main documents, get the ancillary documents, fix your beneficiary designations, make sure you know how things are titled, and talk about it with your spouse and with, you know, if you’re designating a guardian like. Hey, would you raise my kids, if I’m gone, that kind of thing.  

    So do those things. It’ll feel good and you know, people are relieved to get it done and it’s the responsible thing to do so. Hope that makes it easier to kind of see. OK, that’s what you’re dealing with. That’s how long it will take. Don’t put it off. Alright, give me a call if you need help with any of that. I hope that was helpful. Bye for now.

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  • Fixing House Inheritances

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    Hi folks, it’s Andy Stautz at Stautz Law. I am back with another… I guess it’s an estate administration topic. This one’s kind of an oddball and it’s not going to be my most focused talk ever, but it comes up so much. And the question is: how do I get the house? How do I fix the house?  

    Scenarios: Houses Left in Old Title

    And the scenario that comes up over and over is, oh, my grandma, you know, owned the family farm and she died and so and so’s name is still on the title, but he’s gone. And you know my cousin’s living there.  

    All of these situations where there’s there’s some property (real estate always, you know we’re not talking about personal property here). There’s some real estate, there’s some house and it’s still titled in someone’s name who’s gone. And the question is OK. How do we how do we bring it up to date? What happens, you know?  

    A lot of times this happens when either there’s a mortgage or there are taxes, and something changes there. 

    In theory when someone dies the personal representative, if there’s an estate administration, or the beneficiary if there’s a transfer on death deed, maybe, needs to assume the mortgage and let the bank know that someone else is paying the mortgage. Same thing with taxes, right? Like in theory, you should get it passed down and make sure that the person who says they’re paying taxes, is the one actually paying taxes.  

    Obviously, that doesn’t always happen, right? So you’ve got people who are paying the mortgage in a dead person’s name or paying taxes in a dead person’s name. Which is not a huge deal as long as things are getting paid… Most people are usually willing to just kind of let it slide, but if there’s a change in circumstances, that’s when it comes up. Or someone stops paying the taxes and now there’s a foreclosure sale or a tax sale.  

    Solutions to Broken Inheritance

    So can can you fix it? Usually, yeah. Usually, yeah. It just kind of depends on different factors. 

    1. Probate a Will for Specific Asset

      For example, if there’s a will, that’s great. Usually the rule is you have to probate A will within three years of a death. Now sometimes these cases come to me a little way after. Fortunately, there’s an escape hatch in the Indiana Code that says, oh, by the way, though, you can probate a will specifically to clear title or pass titles of something that’s still titled in the decedent’s name… which is perfectly this situation, right? We’ve got a house. It’s still titled in someone’s name. They died five years ago. It’s like, OK, we’re past the three-year limit, but we can still introduce a will if there is one to say “here’s how it needs to go.”  

      [Edit: that code provision is IC 29-1-7-15.1(h)] 

      2. Survivorship Affidavits

      Sort of similar for survivorship affidavits. So if there’s a joint titling situation and you need to resolve who got the property by survivorship, you can file a survivorship affidavit. As far as I can tell, uh, you know, there’s not right in the statute a limitation on when you can do that.  

      And sometimes it happens years later, sometimes you need to do a survivorship affidavit to clear up a joint title situation. And then a probate.  

      You can kind of stack these methods.  

      3. Devolution Affidavits

      The other technique which probably deserves a whole talk of its own, is, uh, what’s called a devolution affidavit. And this is basically a deed that you can do without a probate administration. And it’s supposed to show the title to the real estate passed.  

      Problem is, if it passes by will there’s another clause in the probate code that says you can’t. You have to probate the will for it to be effective, [citation: IC 29-1-7-24] so arguably that means you need to do the probate of will for specific asset.  

      In intestacy, you don’t necessarily need to do that. You’re just still, you know, depending on your title company, some title companies take the position there’s still a cloud on the title because until there’s been an administration. The property is, you know, subject to possession of the of the personal representative. And again, that gets arguable, but it’s something to consider.  

      So that’s just a bunch of considerations. This is really a problem solving area, so if there’s a house and it’s titled in the wrong person’s name and you’re wondering who gets it or whether you can get it, it just depends on the facts and it depends on what intestacy rules say, what the will says, if there’s a will, you know, other heirs and it’s kind of… it’s problem solving. You know you use these different techniques to try to make sure it goes in the right place which can be really fun.  

      You just don’t know how it’s going to turn out until you get advice for your situation. So if you’re dealing with something like that, give me a call. Love working on these cases and I hope this talk has been helpful. It’s kind of a general overview of what’s possible. Thanks. Bye.

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    1. In the News: WSJ Covers Transfer on Death Deeds

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      Good morning, folks. It’s Andy Stautz at Stautz Law and we are back with another talk about estate planning topics. Today’s kind of a fun one and it has to do with yesterday’s newspaper. So the Wall Street Journal has an article about transfer on death deeds. I’ve got it right here. “When Leaving Homes to Heirs Backfires.”

      When Passing Along Your House After Death Gets Complicated – WSJ

      And it’s all about transfer on death deeds, which not every state has. Indiana does. Obviously. I’ve talked about them before.  

      And the article goes through, you know, the basic idea which I’ve explained: automatic out of probate transfer of a house or, you know, any property, actually–real property. And you know that, like I’ve said, the mechanism is simple. As part of an overall plan, it’s great.  

      But there are lots of things that can go wrong. They’re slippery.  

      Examples: Restrictions, Insurance

      So a couple of the examples in the article are things I’ve warned about, so one of them is a transfer restriction in a contract. If you’ve got a property and for some reason your title to it is encumbered by a contract or whatever. And there’s an anti transfer provision and you try to use the transfer on death deed that might violate that.  

      Another example is continued insurance coverage. They use a case in Minnesota where an heir lost the house because the insurer, you know, didn’t give him continuing coverage. Indiana’s got a law in place to prevent that. You’re allowed, you know, a grace period basically to figure out how to insure new property that comes to you that way.  

      Lesson: Tread Carefully with TOD Deeds

      But it’s interesting to see, you know, and it’s the Wall Street Journal. It’s a national paper, really, talking about estate planning. It was fun to see an outside perspective and see how it’s presented to a wider audience. And it lines up with with my advice, which is: great tool, you’ve got to know what you’re doing.  

      So if you want a transfer on death deed as part of your plan, come talk to me. I like to do complete plans, but sometimes I’ll prepare a deed sort of as a one-off.  

      Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed that. I’ll try to link to the article and see if there’s an online version linked to that in the text description. But hope that was a fun one. See you next time. Bye. 

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    2. Saving Money with Revocable Trusts

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      Hi, it’s Andy Stautz at Stautz Law. Today we’re back talking about estate planning. And my topic for today is why estate planning is worth it. In other words, how you can save lots of money with a revocable trust.  

      Is Getting a Trust Done Worth It?

      Now. You know. I think I provide overwhelming value to my clients. I think doing an estate plan is always worth it. UM. Because. The comparison between the upfront cost of doing an estate plan. And the back end savings is huge. And every time.  

      So today we’re just doing a simple example. I’m not going to go into the whole thing. I’m just going to point out that, you know, a will based plan is kind of the the cheapest, most basic option. A step up from that and what I recommend for lots of my clients is a revocable trust based plan.  

      Now. Writing a trust is more difficult. It’s more expensive, and there’s a little bit more administrative complexity. But it saves money in the long run. And the math is really simple.  

      How a Revocable Trust Saves on Probate Costs

      You know, setting up the trust costs a little over $3000. But a trust avoids probate, which a will based plan does not – and which “no planning at all” does not.  

      Estimating Indiana Probate Costs without a Trust

      Well, guess what? Probate administration in Indiana right now pretty much starts at $3000. That’s for a simple, you know, unsupervised, uncontested estate. That’s just how long it takes to get through the court process. 

      And that’s a minimum. So it goes up from there. So if someone comes out of the woodwork and challenges the will; if you’ve got a bunch of creditors that you didn’t know about; You know if, uh, you need it supervised for some reason… You know, all the complexities add up.  

      So. The fees I charge for my trust-based planning are…. intended to demonstrate overwhelming value. It’s going to save you the minimum financial cost of going through probate, not to mention the risk of more expense, the risk of conflict. And you know, the emotional strain of having to deal with lawyers and court while you’re grieving.  

      Is an Indiana Estate Plan Worth the Cost? How to Decide

      I think the comparison’s a no brainer. You know, if you can afford it, paying to have it done upfront is definitely going to save you money. It’s also going to make your life easier. So that’s why your financial planner. You know, advises you to get an estate plan. That’s why I try to get my clients to, like, come on, sit down and do your estate plan. Because it’s just … it’s the responsible thing to do. It’s good for you.  

      And that’s why I love my job because. I really get to help clients out. I get to deliver a product that is, you know, that is great. It’s a great deal. So that’s my point for today. I’m sure we’ll talk about it in the future.  

      You can look around on the website, you can book an appointment online or you can give me a call if you want to talk. And we’ll see what plan is right for you. Thanks and bye.

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    3. Does a House Need to Go Through Probate?

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      Good morning, folks. We’re back. It’s Andy Stautz at Stautz Law and we are talking about basic estate planning. And probate. Today we’re talking about a very common scenario which is inheriting a house.  

      Does a House Need to Go Through Probate?

      So I was asked the other day, “Ohh, well, my parents’ house is coming to me in the will. But I’m not ready to open a probate estate yet. Can I sell the house right now?”  

      And the answer is no, you can’t. Not if there wasn’t planning done in advance.  

      Probate Avoidance Planning for a House

      So if you plan in advance, you can put a house in a trust so that it passes automatically outside of probate, or you can record a transfer on death deed. Which is another way to transfer house outside of probate: transfer on death deed, which I’ve talked about elsewhere. It’s like a beneficiary designation on a retirement account. It just works.  

      So that and the trust are kind of two main planning techniques.  

      Indiana Probate Procedure for Houses

      But of course once the the homeowner has has passed, well, it’s too late to do any advance planning. So now you’re dealing with… You’re dealing with a house that needs to pass the title in an orderly way, and that’s what probate is, and that’s what probate’s for. 

      Now, Indiana has a small estate procedure that is much simplified. But the limit for that is $100,000 at the moment. It was lower before. So if there’s any significant equity in the house, you can’t use the affidavit procedure to transfer a house title.

      [EDIT: For completeness’ sake, I should have mentioned that Indiana does allow a “devolution affidavit,” which can provide evidence of a transferred house title, even above the small-estate limit and even without probate. The use of devolution affidavits is controversial, and is beyond the scope of this introductory talk.]

      You probably don’t want to anyway, because you might have problems down the road selling the house, clearing a title check at sale, getting a mortgage against it if you want one.  

      So really what you need to do is open a probate estate: that can be unsupervised, maybe, you know depending on how many beneficiaries there are, or the status of the rest of the estate, whether there is a will that provides for unsupervised administration….  

      But the minimum cost you’re looking at there is probably, uh, $3000 and up for a probate administration, and that’s what you have to do before you can… Before you can sell the house. Right? you have to get title to the house before you can sell it.  

      So you can’t just… You can’t just take the house. Say, oh, well, it’s going to be mine and then sell it right away. So that’s a real speed bump for a lot of people. And something you should plan ahead for.  

      You know, if you want your heirs and beneficiaries to be able to get rid of the house right away. Or sell the house. If you want to make it easy on them, you need to do some advance planning.  

      If you want to make it easy on them, you need to do some advance planning

      And on the flip side, if you are probably inheriting a house. You know you need to, you need to be prepared to go through probate, which is going to be an expense. And it’s going to be a delay. So it’s probably going to be a few months before you’re ready to actually sell that house. So that’s just kind of how it works.  

      It can get more complicated once you’re in probate, if you know that if there’s a contest, if for some reason it’s a supervised administration. And if it’s a supervised administration, you need to go to the court and ask permission to sell it and and, you know, get permission to say, OK, we think this is a fair market value sale, whatever. UM. So it can be really tedious a 

      Benefits of Estate Planning for Probate Avoidance

      And that’s why a lot of my estate plans when people come to me ahead of time, we were able to plan around that and make sure we’re not dealing with probate. That’s why probate avoidance is is worth the upfront cost: because it saves you, after death, you know, time cost, legal fee cost, risk of conflict or contest amongst beneficiaries and heirs.  

      Planning looks expensive up front, but it avoids problems later.  

      If you didn’t do the planning and you’ve got if you’ve got a house that you need to do something with? Yep, a probate administration is going to be the way. You know. I’m happy to handle that for people, too, it’s just kind of two different roads and you got to decide which one you want to be on. 

      So. I hope that clarifies the probate transfer of houses. If you want to talk about that topic or any other estate planning probate topic with me. You can book online here at the website or give me a call.  

      Thanks for watching! Bye.

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    4. Video: Estate Planning for Young Adults

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      Good morning, folks. It’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law and we are back today with another estate planning talk. Today’s topic is estate planning for young people, young adults, really. Because I’m a young adult, lots of my friends are young adults and so I get the question all the time: “Hey, Andy, if we came in to you for an initial planning meeting, what would you recommend? What do we need to be doing right now?”  

      You know, obviously that’s a complicated question because everyone’s situation is different. But there are enough similarities between young adults that it’s worth talking about the the basics.  

      So consideration #1 is: What is your property? I mean, how much do you have to protect and is it worth going to any trouble about it — because you know maybe you’ve been in grad school through your 20s, or maybe you’ve been, you know, kind of finding yourself, trying different careers; who knows what you might be 30 years old and have no assets. Well, then, you probably don’t want to be paying an estate planning attorney to come up with a plan for you, because why!?  

      But as you start getting more, I think you need to keep an eye on that because some, some, some young adults, married or unmarried, get into their 30s and OK, you’ve got some retirement accounts. Maybe you’ve got a house, you know, rental properties, if you’re into that. So as you start amassing wealth, as you start doing well for yourself, that’s great. And that’s when it starts, you know, OK, you probably don’t want all of this escheating to the state or accidentally going somewhere you don’t want, or costing your family tons of money in probate. So that’s trade off #1 

      #2 is kind of: “OK well, how how does your situation relate to the default rules?” Because as as I’ve discussed in my other videos, you know, “do you need a will?” You know, “do you need an estate plan?” There are default rules. There is intestacy. There’s a priority of healthcare decision makers, so. If you’re unmarried and childless. You know, maybe those default rules do a pretty good job for you.  

      If you’ve got preferences that are different, you know, especially if there’s conflict with your family — because If you are unmarried and childless, your parents are still kind of your number one beneficiaries and your number one decision makers if you’re incapacitated –so you know if you want to avoid that for whatever reason, you know, then that that weighs in the balance in favor of, “OK, you need some deliberate estate planning.” And I’ll cite the I’ll cite the actual law in the written version of this, just so you have it.  

      So that’s kind of Part 1 of the discussion is how much do you have to protect and how do your preferences relate to the default preferences? Because if you don’t have a lot and your situation is well handled by the default rules. You know, what’s my recommendation for your estate plan? Not a lot, you know. Making a will if you can afford one, making sure of your beneficiary designations are a big one. You know, if your only asset is a retirement account, it’s like OK well. Go on your own. Make sure the beneficiary designation is who you want it to be. You can do that yourself. You don’t need to… You don’t need to pay anyone to do it.  

      Yeah, so closing thought for today then is, yeah, the more complex your situation gets, the more property you amass, the more it’s worth it to to sit down and have a planning talk. And. That’s when the the the balance starts to come out in your favor of. OK, yeah, it’s an upfront cost you need to budget for it. You need to have free cash flow to meet the planning expense. But it’ll, you know, the more property we’re talking about, the more you’ll save on the back end and you know, the better that works out for you.  

      So those are big considerations. That was Part 1 of this talk. I’m going to break it into two parts and then Part 2, we’re going to talk about some specific dispositions and planning recommendations that I’m often making. So stay tuned for that. Bye now.

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    5. Talking About . . . Coordinating Beneficiary Designations

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      Hi. It’s Andy Stautz with Stautz Law and we are back for another quick informational chat about basic estate planning topics. Today we’re talking about beneficiary designations and specifically coordinating your beneficiary designations.  

      So if you’ve seen my previous videos or read elsewhere, you know that one really simple, easy type of planning technique is just to name a beneficiary on a retirement account; a life insurance policy; or I include transfer on death deeds because they’re basically a beneficiary designation. And what these mechanisms do is pass the property involved (the account, the policy, the real estate) automatically outside of probate. To [whomever] you named as the beneficiary on the instrument or on the account. The nice thing is it’s outside of probate. And for many cases, you know, if you’ve got an account at Vanguard or Morgan Stanley or Schwab, you can do it yourself. [You] don’t even need an estate planning attorney to get it set up for you.  

      The danger is that you do something accidental. So one common scenario is someone has a retirement account and they put. . . . one of their children as the beneficiary on the retirement account and they put another child as a beneficiary of a transfer on death deed. And they say, great, my planning’s done. And perhaps the retirement account is worth $100,000 and the House is worth $100,000. And they think they’ve split up their estate. And they’re good to go.  

      Well, what happens when 20 years later? You know, they have a long, healthy life. The assets in the retirement account keep going up. The House appreciates and you know at time of death it comes time to distribute the assets and all of a sudden one kid gets a half million dollar retirement account and the other one gets the same house worth whatever it was worth all along. Or the other way around. 

      You can end up with unfair distributions that go against your initial wishes if you don’t coordinate your designations with your whole estate plan.

      You can end up with unfair distributions that go against your initial wishes if you don’t coordinate your designations with your whole estate plan.

      So one way to get around that is just revise them often. But that’s pretty, that’s pretty, pretty low tech. And it requires you to stay up to date on these things, and most people don’t want to do that. Most people want to have one good conversation with their estate planner. Get their plan done and check it off right. Yep, done. And there’s a lot to that.  

      So there are there are different ways to handle coordinating beneficiary designations. One easy one is to designate a trust. (If that’s allowed by your bank or retirement account) That way you can write more specific instructions into the trust instrument or. Sort of put everything into one pot and distribute from there, rather than hoping that all the different accounts end up equal or close to equal. And then there are more sophisticated ways, too.  

      Or if charitable interests are part of your plan, that can be a great way to do it. But in any case, the thing to remember about this discussion is beneficiary designations are simple. They’re great. But you need to have a plan for how they’re going to work together and make sure that your estate plan . . . works like it ought to, even if your circumstances change over time. 

      So. 

      If you need help with your situation, you should call me or book an appointment online, on here on the website. But again, Andy Stautz for Stautz Law. Thanks for watching and I hope we’ll be in touch soon.

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