By Kyle Reynolds CFP®, CIMA®, Assistant Vice President, Portfolio Manager
You’ve said it yourself. “Timing is everything.” And where legacy planning is concerned, there’s no better time than now to plan for your future.
It’s so easy to put off the process — no one likes to think about their mortality, let alone talk about the possibility of incapacitation or how and when they’ll die. However, regardless of how old you are or how much wealth you’ve accumulated, you probably want to make sure the assets you leave behind after you’re gone will continue to support your loved ones and the important causes in your life.
“Protecting your assets is always a top priority of any fiduciary. It is never too early to put in place a plan with the desired structure — but it can be too late to make changes if an individual passes away or is deemed incapacitated.”
But making sure your legacy passes on according to your wishes doesn’t happen without some effort on your part — and it might require the assistance of qualified financial, tax, and legal advisors along the way.
Whether you’re in the planning stages or are reviewing an existing estate plan, you may want to consider the following banking tips:
Make these banking moves part of your strategy.
- Make sure you have structured your accounts for ease of day-to-day processing. You can choose typical account titling, whether it be in one person’s name, jointly titled with multiple account owners, or titled in the name of a trust.
- Keep in mind banking accounts can have a payable on death (POD) designation to a beneficiary of your choosing. This is an especially important consideration if your account is titled in an individual name. By naming beneficiaries to your various accounts, those assets will, in most cases, transfer to the named beneficiaries without going through probate.
- This is a good thing for several reasons:
- Probate is a public process, thus allowing outside parties to potentially gain information on the nature of your assets or the value of your estate.
- The probate process comes with a cost – it can be significant, depending on the total value of the assets in your estate.
- The probate process can be long and cumbersome.
- This is a good thing for several reasons:
- Titling multiple accounts differently is common. Some individuals who establish revocable trusts decide to title one account in their personal name and another account in the name of their revocable trust. They do this because they receive distributions such as stock dividends, checks made payable to the trust, etc., and financial institutions want the items presented to match the titling of their accounts.
If you make changes to your estate plan or adjustments to your trust documents, be sure the current titling on your bank accounts matches the names set forth in the most current documents you have in place.
Next Steps
During legacy planning, you can encounter many uncertainties associated with the decision-making process. Discussing your goals with your private banker and trust company is a great first step in ensuring your estate is protected and your legacy is passed on according to your wishes.
