Beneficiary Designation

Protecting Your Finances with Estate Planning Tools

A beneficiary designation is an agreement between your estate and a financial institution to pay out specific assets upon your death to a named trust or individual. For example, your life insurance policy may have your spouse or child named to receive the payout when you pass away. Coordinating your beneficiary designations with your estate planning documents is essential to plan properly and to protect your beneficiaries from unnecessary risk. At the Law Offices of Charles L. Kurmay, we can help you to make initial beneficiary designations or review and change past designations.

The most common types of beneficiary designation assets include:

• Employer-sponsored plans/IRAs
• RMD/IRA conduit trusts
• Non-qualified annuities/life insurance
• POD accounts

In order to determine whether one or more of these tools are right for your situation and estate planning goals, you should meet with a beneficiary designation attorney. We can ensure you are informed about your options, as well as how to avoid potential pitfalls and complications.

To begin, call us at (203) 380-1743 for a consultation. We serve clients in Fairfield County, New Haven County, and the surrounding areas.

Avoiding Potential Pitfalls with Beneficiary Designation Assets

Beneficiary designation assets or accounts, like other estate planning tools, should be used in conjunction with other facets of your estate plan. When they are properly drafted and prepared by a lawyer, there is less room for mistakes. However, there are occasions where simple mistakes or oversights can result in your estate plan being disrupted.

A few common mistakes include:

• Failing to name specific beneficiaries
• Failure to name contingent beneficiaries
• Designating a beneficiary that will become ineligible for benefits
• Failure to review your complete estate plan after important events
• Failure to ensure beneficiary designations are not in conflict

Contact Our Attorneys Today

The most effective way to take advantage of these tools is to seek representation. Working with an experienced attorney can make a difference in how thorough and personalized your estate plan is. At the Law Offices of Charles L. Kurmay, we have seven decades of combined experience guiding our clients through the complex estate planning process. Fortunately, we understand the many facets of estate planning, including how beneficiary designation assets can benefit your estate. Let us help you take the right steps to avoid extra taxes and expenses and to ensure that your assets end up in the intended hands.

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At the Law Offices of Charles L. Kurmay, we always strive for the best verdicts, judgments, settlements, and outcomes for our clients, and we’ve succeeded in thousands of cases. Here are
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