We’ve all been there. You are the last person at the luggage carousel. There’s a lone duffle bag circling, unfortunately it is not yours. Everyone else has set out for their next stop. It’s becoming real. Your luggage is not joining you on your trip. Yes, this is bad. Your luggage did not make it to your intended destination but this can, and likely will be fixed in the coming days. But what if your hard earned savings did not make its way to your intended recipient? Instead of passing a financial legacy to your children and grandchildren, you ended up securing the financial future of your ex-spouse, their awful new companion, and gulp, their whiny offspring. Granted, this is somewhat dramatized, but we do regularly meet new clients who have not maintained their beneficiary designations and now have outdated wishes. In theory, they’re no less to blame than the clerk at the Columbus airport who once asked me for the 3 letter airport code for my trip to Fort Myers, so he could print my luggage tag (those who know me can assure you I handled that with a dash of sarcasm). The truth is, many people are unsure of how to address these beneficiary issues. This is one of our first orders of business with new clients; making sure their accounts are titled properly, and that the accounts will transfer to the right person, without the costs and delays associated with the probate process. By the way, it’s RSW for those traveling to the Southwest Florida International Airport.
http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/what-big-deal-about-beneficiary-designations