A recent article in The Wall Street Journal caught my eye because it’s an extreme version of what we see many trustees have to go through after the passing of a loved one.
A pair of loving grandparents had diligently saved up a retirement account with $1.2M, intending for it to be split among their 36 grandchildren. The grandparents passed in 2019 and 2020.
Today—six years later—the account remains entirely frozen by the financial institution. Why? Because a single beneficiary designation form was never properly signed.
Families spend substantial time, emotional energy, and money creating estate plans… but FAR TOO OFTEN, the assets themselves are never properly aligned with those documents.
One quote from the article was all too familiar for me:
“Pat Agnew, the estate lawyer who drew up the estate plan, said he gave the family instructions to update the beneficiary form.”
This is the tragic flaw of traditional estate planning. Handing a client a to-do list and wishing them luck is not nearly enough. Life gets busy, forms get confusing, and critical details slip through the cracks.
Because in the eyes of financial institutions and the law, your intent does not control. What controls the disposition of your assets is really:
- Account titling/ownership (how the account is held – e.g. in the name of a trust or individually)
- Beneficiary designations (who is named on the form)
That is exactly why asset alignment is one of the cornerstones of our Legacy Program.
Over time, we’ve stopped defining our job as simply drafting accurate legal documents and sending clients on their way. The real work—the most important work—is helping ensure that your trusts, beneficiary designations, real estate, corporate interests, and financial accounts are actually aligned with your plan, and stay aligned as your life changes.
Even an excellent trust will fail if the assets are left unaligned. And alignment isn’t a one-time event. Accounts get opened. Properties get refinanced or sold. New investments are made. Old assets disappear.
For our Legacy Program clients, this is an important reminder:
If your assets have changed in any way, now is an excellent time to let us know so we can help ensure your plan remains properly aligned.
Estate planning is not just document creation! It is implementation and coordination. That is a primary cornerstone in the real work of legacy planning.
Let’s make sure your intent matches your reality.