“Information Bits from the Boss: Samantha provides brief answers to clients frequently asked questions”

What if I’ve designated my estate as my beneficiary of some of my accounts?
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 When we do an initial consultation with a client, one of the things that we ask is “What assets do you have?” and “Do you have assets where there’s a beneficiary designated on the account or on that asset?” A lot of times we have clients who have great financial advisors who have already helped the client designate beneficiaries on accounts. If a client has his or her estate designated as the beneficiary, we may discuss the advantages and disadvantage of that designation. The nice thing is that if a client named the estate, then a client can change his or her will whenever and that asset that is paid to his or her estate will then get diverted according to the will. The downside of naming the estate is that it is subject to any creditor’s that a client may have at death. There are some certain situations that you would want to name your estate but there are also a lot of reasons why you would not name your estate. We typically work with the client and financial advisor to figure out what is best in that specific client’s situation.  If you have additional questions, please reach out to us.

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