Naming a beneficiary is separate from the remainder of your estate planning process because it is something that must be carried out directly with your accounts such as your life insurance carrier or your retirement plan manager.
Unfortunately, far too many of the mistakes made with regard to beneficiaries are only discovered after the fact when your intended beneficiary doesn’t receive the assets you anticipated. The most common mistakes made by people as it related to people putting together beneficiary designations included:
- Â Not naming a beneficiary at all.
- Â Having outdated beneficiaries that you failed to update with a changing life event.
- Â Naming your estate directly as the beneficiary for the retirement plan.
- Â Naming a minor who is ineligible to receive assets as a direct beneficiary.
- Â Naming a special needs individual to receive your assets and thus disqualifying them from government programs.
- Â Naming a child, a co-owner of an investment/deposit account.
- Â Naming just one beneficiary on separate accounts or naming separate children as beneficiaries.
All of these mistakes can be easily avoided when you schedule a consultation directly with an estate planning attorney who is thoroughly knowledgeable about helping people avoid the most common mistakes.
