The trouble began when Ed was ailing, and his wife, Val, was incapacitated. A family member, acting under power of attorney, ...

The simplest oversights can cause the biggest problems for heirs, especially those intended to inherit retirement accounts. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of court cases in which the logical ...

Most Americans believe their will distributes their estate, but that's not the case with retirement accounts, life insurance, and more.

This article is part of our “Get It Done” week on Morningstar.com: All week we will feature articles and videos offering guidance on ways to help tackle those nagging items on your financial to-do ...

We pay good money to estate-planning attorneys to draft trusts and wills. We deliberate over which loved ones are best suited to be guardians for minor children in case of catastrophe. We have ...

A federal district court has ruled for a second time on litigation arising from a dispute over verbal and written beneficiary designations. A thorny Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ...

Beneficiary designations legally override wills and are crucial for estate planning. Regularly review, update, and align designations with current life stages and estate plans. Contracts are rarely ...

Estate planning is a broad term that describes the process of directing what happens to you assets upon your death. The process may entail additional directions or stipulations to be observed and ...

・Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance, and bank accounts are legally binding contracts that override your will and an outdated form can send your assets to the wrong person.

The majority of beneficiary designations are straightforward. Spouses leave retirement accounts primarily to each other and contingently divided among their children. If their children have not yet ...

What is a beneficiary? Perhaps the clearest definition comes from the Insurance Information Institute which states, “A beneficiary is a person or entity you name in a life insurance policy to receive ...

Your clients’ beneficiary designations are probably wrong. Not because they made bad decisions, but because they made them once and never looked again. Life changed. Their estate plan changed. The Tax ...