Issues That Can Complicate Your Beneficiary Designation And How Your Legal Advisor Can Help You Avoid Them
The primary objective of an estate plan is to ensure that your heirs get their inheritance quickly. Therefore, you should avoid any mistakes that could make your assets end up in the wrong hands or complicate the inheritance process for the beneficiaries. Proper estate planning is crucial if you own an account or a policy requiring a designated beneficiary. Working with an estate planning attorney is the best way to avoid the following issues that often arise in beneficiary designation.
Failing to Name Beneficiaries
Failing to name beneficiaries to your account or policy can make inheritance challenging for your heirs. In this case, the funds will have to go through probate, prolonging the division process. This issue may also increase taxes, which you could have avoided if the process did not go through probate. Your legal advisor will help you avert this issue by ensuring you list the right beneficiaries in your estate plan. And if you need to include or remove some people from the list, they will offer you the relevant assistance.
Naming a Person with Special Needs as a Beneficiary
Naming a person with special needs as an inheritor comes with numerous challenges. For instance, you may have to allocate more money for their upkeep, which could cause disagreements with other heirs. Besides, the disabled beneficiary might not be eligible for the benefits, and you'll need to develop a financial strategy to enable this. In addition, if you allocate them a large sum of money, they may not be able to inherit all of it at once. So seek the help of your attorney to guide you when naming a disabled person as an heir to your possessions. They will ensure that you apply the right laws and wording to give the individual an advantage during property division.
Failing to Take Proper Measures to Protect the Inheritance
Heirs with huge debts lose some or all of their inheritance to creditors because they receive money directly to their accounts. This denies them the financial gift they are supposed to get. You can avoid such a scenario by working with an attorney. They will advise you on specific estate planning techniques to protect the money your heirs are supposed to get.
A beneficiary designation is a good way of ensuring that heirs inherit your assets within the right time. However, the issues above can complicate the inheritance process. Therefore, you need to work with an estate planning attorney to avoid them and enable your beneficiaries to have a flawless process when inheriting your assets.
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