Hello, I’m Christopher Lavin, an attorney with the Lavin Law Group. We are an elder law firm here in Lebanon, Ohio. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and in the old days, a big part of the conversation were taxes, taxes and other types of taxes.
Unfortunately, taxes are still a part of our estate and must be paid for. But more and more of the conversation has switched to efficiency. I can’t tell you how many folks have come into the office and said, Chris, I just settled the estate of a loved one. My parents are such. You won’t believe how long it took the court system to make us provide the hoops like attorneys made us jump through the expenses, the arguments with the family, whatever the situation may have been.
And there’s got to be an easier way. And there is. So what we are trying to look at is, minimizing court contact. There’s that old adage, nothing good happens in court. You spent a lifetime avoiding it. Why do you volunteer your family to when you pass away? So, one of the biggest things we look at in the traditional plan is how the assets are titled.
I will never manage your money, but I want to look at the beneficiaries’ ownership situation. Even if you have a beneficiary on your account, we know them as pay on death, transfer on death, dated death, and forms of a beneficiary. It’s just that banks call them something different than insurance companies and so forth. But any on-death arrangement, P.O.D., or TOD will satisfy that situation.
So even if your will says leave everything to Mickey Mouse, but your beneficiaries say, my two children, the beneficiary is in control. I don’t need the court to direct that asset you already told the bank or the insurance company what to do. So please, I know we keep an eye on our investment. The next time you’re sitting with your financial advisors, have them review the beneficiaries and all the PODs with you. It’s as important as the investments.