Dear Valued Client:

As we ride on this roller coaster called life, it is important we stop and perform maintenance checks on our journey so that we may be sure that our family and friends are considered and involved in our lives as time marches forward.  Now is the time to perform that check.

Changes in family dynamics occur often. We have births, deaths, divorces, marriages, and adoptions which require updates to our goals and desires with respect to our beneficiaries. While many of us ensure our important documents, such as wills and trusts, are updated on a frequent basis we tend to neglect our retirement account beneficiary designations.  Your retirement accounts are not part of your estate and generally not governed by the provisions of your will or trust.  It is important to keep these retirement accounts updated.

If you have experienced a change in marital status, added children or grandchildren to your family or have had a death in the family it is time to revisit your beneficiary designations.  Your survivors could face long court battles for legal determination of a true beneficiary if an account had not been updated appropriately.  Moreover, a court’s decision may not always turn out as you had hoped.  To prevent these situations, it is time for you to stop what you are doing, perform a beneficiary check, and then continue on with your daily life. Your heirs will really appreciate you performing this exercise.

As your financial advisors, we strongly encourage you to call our team to confirm your beneficiaries designated on your retirement accounts, held with our firm.  You need to make sure they are set up exactly how you want them. We also encourage you to review your trusts, wills, powers of attorney and health directives to ensure the people you designated to run your affairs know they have been selected and are willing and able to perform the duties you designate for them. We would be happy to sit down with you and those involved in your life decisions and explain their responsibilities.

Best regards,