This Wall Street Journal article from last month captures the often-painful discovery made by loved ones after a death that Trusts don’t control all assets – only assets for which title is held in the name of the Trust. *subscription link required (may not be required): email Lorie if you want a link to the article and don’t have a subscription to the WSJ*
Kaiser Law Group’s Legacy Program is designed around the fact that asset alignment is a pillar of estate planning but often overlooked by clients. Our team (led by our Senior Paralegal, Michelle Saye, who specializes in asset alignment) takes care of our Legacy Program clients by walking them through the many steps (and avoiding the missteps) listed in the article.
The article mentions retirement accounts and life insurance policies as assets that often trip up unsuspecting families. Additional categories that can be a bit confusing are (1) accounts/assets held jointly and (2) assets with POD (Payable On Death) beneficiaries. In the first category, if an older woman with three children decides to add her oldest daughter to an account as a joint account holder to give her access to the account, at the passing of the mother, the account will be owned solely by her oldest daughter. It will be up to the oldest daughter TO USE OR SHARE THE ACCOUNT in accordance with Mom’s wishes (but it won’t be a requirement that she share with her siblings). For the second category, the POD beneficiary will receive the asset – regardless of what the trust says.
An issue mentioned in the article that we’ve found to be crucial to the success of our Legacy Program clients is receiving asset alignment confirmations directly from institutions. We do not consider it sufficient to send in proper paperwork to name or update beneficiary designations…instead we won’t consider an asset aligned until we have received confirmation back from the appropriate institution indicating that the changes have been made. It’s too easy for paperwork to otherwise be lost in the shuffle.
We’ve attached a flyer that shows our Estate Planning Process – the second page is almost completely devoted to asset alignment – a step that most estate planning firms consider to be the sole responsibility of the client.
Your Will Alone Won’t Guarantee Your Money Goes to Your Heirs
And remember, another Legacy Program benefit (and a cost of non-renewing) is that typically discussions and implementation of even seemingly minor changes to the estate plan for non-legacy program clients cost $5,000+.