Properly designating beneficiaries for assets that transfer on death is one of the simplest, and most commonly overlooked, methods to maximize the efficiency of a client’s estate plan. As a recent ...

Most Americans believe their will distributes their estate, but that's not the case with retirement accounts, life insurance, and more.

There are several methods of transferring property at death. A transfer of probate property by a valid will or a deed of transfer will generally involve the assistance and advice of an attorney. While ...

When you die, anything that you own which has titling is either given to your beneficiaries via your will or via a will substitute. Any titled asset which does not have a will substitute goes into ...

IF YOU HAVE an individual retirement account, do you recall filling out a beneficiary designation form? That’s the document that allows you to direct the IRA custodian to transfer your IRA to people ...

・Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and bank accounts are legally binding contracts that override your will and an outdated form can send your assets to the wrong person.

Because, when the couple was dating in the 1980s, Mr. Rolison had listed Ms. Sjostedt as the sole beneficiary of his retirement account, and then never updated the form to designate a new beneficiary, ...

You've kept your will updated regularly to make sure your assets are distributed according to your wishes upon death. Have you done the same thing with your beneficiary designations? If not, your ...

Most individuals own assets that will pass upon the death of that individual pursuant to a beneficiary designation. In fact, in many instances, these types of assets make up a large portion of an ...

Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts override your will when it's time to determine who inherits your funds. Many people forget to update beneficiary forms, which leads to unintended ...