Mainstar Blog: Importance of Keeping Beneficiaries Updated Have you checked who is designated as your beneficiary on your retirement account lately? For many people, naming beneficiaries happens one time, when they set up the account or policy. However, life changes (birth, marriage, divorce, death) are inevitable, and when these changes occur, you, or your family, may find that the designated beneficiary on your retirement account is not who you think it should be. When it comes to planning for wealth transfers, it is extremely important to review your beneficiaries periodically…especially if you have had children, divorced, or remarried since you established your retirement account. Or, if you had previously named a charity or trust as …show more content…
Doing so may extend your retirement savings after your death and allow your money to continue to grow tax deferred. Another reason it is important to name the correct beneficiaries is to avoid probate, a long and typically expensive process that involves reviewing and determining where your will and assets will be distributed after your death. Ensuring you have selected your preferred beneficiaries is crucial as it is these designated beneficiaries that override any distribution requests made in a will. There is no limit to the number of beneficiaries you can name for your retirement plan. There are, however, different distribution options available based on who you designate as beneficiary, whether it is a spouse or non-spouse selected. Your spouse is the only individual who can inherit your IRA and treat it like their own; they can roll it into their own IRA or leave it as inherited and take distributions as they need. If you name a child or grandchild as your beneficiary, this allows the required minimum distributions (RMD) to be calculated over their life expectancy and stretches the amount of time the money can grow tax …show more content…
Without a living beneficiary designated, your assets may be transferred to your estate, in which case state law would intervene to determine who receives it. Usually it is assumed that the heir(s) named in the will receive all proceeds, but this can be challenged as beneficiary designations supersede the will. When considering beneficiaries for your IRA account, it is important to remember that you can select both primary and contingent beneficiaries. Contingent beneficiaries inherit the IRA if the primary precedes you in death. For instance, if you select a friend as beneficiary but neglect to change the designation in the event your friend dies and you then pass away, your friend’s spouse or children could claim the asset. This can be frustrating and confusing for survivors who may need to work with a legal team or court to determine true beneficiary designation if the account is outdated, and the court’s decision may not always be what you would have wanted. This is particularly the case in divorce situations or if children were born after the initial designation was
According to the Social Security Administration 2015 data, approximately 78 percent of the beneficiaries are retirees or elderly widow(er)s. Roughly 18 percent of the beneficiaries are disabled, and around 3
"One question many have is, "what is probate?". This legal process begins when a loved one passes and is designed to show a will is valid, In addition, the process involves the identification
1. Why should you never designate minor children as your primary beneficiary, but instead put assets intended for them into a trust?
I direct that all legally enforceable debts as well as funeral expenses, be paid from the assets within my estate at the most practicable time after my death. I direct any and all other death taxes, or any property of all kinds tangible and intangible as a part of my gross estate, shall be paid by my residuary estate.
Thankfully, there are ways to minimize the amount of probate your family and friends will have to go through. Work with an estate lawyer to find alternate ways to divide your
The first option will treat the surviving spouse the same as any other beneficiary and require
When a person dies, filing final tax returns becomes mandatory for the executor of the estate. The executor must file a final federal income tax return and a final state income tax return (if required) reporting all income earned by the decedent in the final year of life up until the day of death. Furthermore, even if the executor hires a tax professional to file the final tax returns, the executor must know how to prepare the information needed by the tax professional. Otherwise, the tax professional will charge the estate a substantial amount to handle the preparation as well as the filing of the final tax returns.
One decision that must be made when drafting your Will, is who to name as Executor of the Estate. An Executor is an individual, named in the Will, who will administer the estate. This involves everything from opening an estate checking account and paying the final debts of the estate (funeral bills, final utility bills, etc.) to making sure the beneficiaries receive the assets of the decedent.
1) The transfer of the 2 million dollars to the irrevocable trust is a taxable event resulting in gift tax liability. (USC Title 26 §2523, Gift to spouse) “For transfers of property between spouses the donor may take an unlimited marital deduction for the full amount of the transfer; all transfers of assets between spouses are tax-free.” if you make a gift "in trust," meaning you donate money to a trust for someone's immediate benefit, then the gift is subject to gift tax. Irrevocable trusts, unlike revocable trusts, are used to avoid estate taxes.
Having an estate plan is vastly important, even if you don’t consider yourself wealthy. This is because, everyone, has assets of some sort and it should be your choice to whom those assets will transfer upon your death, not the state’s probate office. Thankfully, simply by constructing an estate plan that includes a will, you will allow your loved ones an easier transition after your death because they will know how you wanted things done.
The will provided for a twisted distribution formula and I had to get it right. So, I wrote a draft of the distribution and had the attorney and tax professional look it over. They both approved of the distribution and, at that point, I wrote out the checks. Along with the checks, I included a letter explaining that this is the first distribution of three. The next distribution will distribute the last of the estate property, and the third distribution was to close out what remains in the estate account. To get the beneficiaries feeling giddy, I told them that the first distribution consisted of only the proceeds from the sale of the rental property, which accounted for about a third of the estate value. So, after reading this letter, I am sure the beneficiaries would feel pleasantly surprised. If not
When most people think of probate attorneys, they often think of an attorney that is needed to disperse assets after a family member has died, and it is true that this is one of their functions. But there are many services they provide while an individual is still alive, and the more you can take advantage of these services now, the fewer problems there will be after your death. The following are among the most important services this type of lawyer can provide you.
Whenever there is a change in a person’s finances, his or her estate plan should be updated to reflect the difference. This is true if the change is positive, like winning a large sum of money, or negative, like dealing with a lengthy illness. By updating your will to reflect your current financial state, you will have a better idea of your ability to provide for your family after your death.
In this case, because Joan turned 77 in the year that she died, all of the inherited IRAs established from her IRA at her death would use her life expectancy factor of 12.1 as the starting point for RMD calculations. Thus, the factor for the 2005 RMD for the inherited IRAs for Joan’s children would have been 11.1, and the IRAs would have been fully distributed no later than this