Legacy Planning
In short
How your accounts are titled and who is named on your beneficiary forms will decide more of what you leave than your will does. You can still change both.
Legacy planning decides where your money, property and charitable gifts go after you die, and makes the paperwork say so. Titling and beneficiary designations move most of it, outside the will. An attorney drafts the documents; we keep your designations current and make sure your accounts and documents agree. We do not give legal or tax advice.
What moves the money
Three things move most of an estate before the will takes effect: how each account and deed is titled, who is named on the beneficiary forms, and what was retitled into a trust. The will governs what is left.
Titling: joint ownership with survivorship, tenancy by the entirety, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registrations
Beneficiary designations: retirement accounts, annuities and life insurance
Trusts: only the assets retitled into the trust, the step easiest to leave half finished
The will: whatever the first three did not move
The beneficiary form beats the will
The Florida Bar’s probate pamphlet explains that life insurance and retirement accounts payable to a named beneficiary are not probate assets. A will leaving everything equally to three children has no effect on a 401(k) whose form still names one of them, an ex-spouse, or nobody.
Forms go stale for ordinary reasons: an old job, a divorce, a blank contingent line. We list every account and policy, pull the designation on file today, and read it back to you beside your will and trust.
Which dollars go to children, and which to causes
For most people who inherit a retirement account from an owner who died after 2019, the IRS requires the balance to come out within ten years, and withdrawals from a pre-tax account count as the beneficiary’s income. A pre-tax IRA left to a daughter in her peak earning years comes out on top of her salary.
A charity pays no income tax on the same dollars. So where giving is already part of your plan, the pre-tax account is often the better gift and a taxable account the better inheritance. We do not provide tax advice, so your tax preparer confirms it first.
An inventory, set beside your documents
We start with an inventory: every account, policy and deed, and what each says today about who receives it, set beside the documents you already have. Any mismatch between the two is what needs fixing.
We do not draft documents or give legal advice. An attorney drafts wills, trusts, powers of attorney and health care directives, and Florida’s homestead and probate rules belong with a Florida attorney. We work alongside yours.
Who this is for
You have a will and a folder of documents, and nobody has checked that your accounts match them.
Your beneficiary forms predate a marriage, a divorce, a death or a grandchild.
Your adult children do not know what the plan is or where to find it.
There is a church, a school or a cause you want to fund properly.
Worth thinking about
When did you last read the beneficiary form on each account and policy?
If one of you died this year, what would the other have to decide first?
Do your children know a plan exists, who your attorney is and where the documents are?
Is there a cause you want to fund, and would you fund it now or after you are gone?
Does anyone in the family need money managed for them rather than handed to them?
Common questions
Does my will control my 401(k) and my life insurance?
Generally no. They pass to whoever is named on the beneficiary form, and Florida treats an account or policy payable to a named beneficiary as a non-probate asset. An account payable to your estate becomes a probate asset, which is seldom what people intend.
Do we need a trust?
Sometimes, and it is an attorney’s call rather than ours. A revocable living trust lets you keep control of your property and often avoids probate, but it costs money to draft and governs only the assets you retitle into it. For some families, corrected designations and sound titling do most of the work.
What is the ten-year rule on an inherited IRA?
For most beneficiaries of an owner who died after 2019, the whole inherited balance has to come out within ten years. The IRS lists exceptions for a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner, a person who is disabled or chronically ill, and a person not more than ten years younger than the owner. IRS Publication 590-B has the detail.
Will our estate owe federal estate tax?
Most will not. The IRS says most relatively simple estates do not need a return; one is required when the gross estate, plus certain lifetime gifts, exceeds a filing threshold that depends on the year of death. We do not quote it, because it moves, but we can show you roughly where you sit.
How do we leave something to our church or to a charity?
Name a qualified organization on a beneficiary form, or give during your lifetime. Once you reach the age the rules specify, a qualified charitable distribution sends money straight from your IRA to an eligible charity and counts toward your required distribution. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search confirms eligibility.
Sources
- Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs, Internal Revenue Service
- Retirement topics: Beneficiary, Internal Revenue Service
- Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), Internal Revenue Service
- Estate tax, Internal Revenue Service
- Tax Exempt Organization Search, Internal Revenue Service
- What is a revocable living trust?, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Probate, Florida Courts Help, Florida State Courts System
- Consumer Pamphlet: Probate in Florida, The Florida Bar
These public resources support the general educational context on this page. They are not endorsements of Oliver Wealth Management, and none of the material here is personalized investment, tax, or legal advice.
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