Tall Oaks Podcast

Estate Planning Beyond the Will: Probate, Taxes & Gifting

• Branden DuCharme

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 28:14

Most people think a will and a trust binder means their estate plan is done. But when we open that binder, we usually find blank pages, homes never titled into the living trust, and accounts that were never funded. The document looks complete — in practice, it isn't doing much.

In this episode, Branden DuCharme and Carisa Bertrand break down what estate planning actually requires, and the three components everyone should understand before assuming they're "done."

What we cover:

Your taxable estate — the 2026 federal exemption sits around $15M per person, so most people won't owe federal estate tax. But state rules differ, and a normal revocable living trust doesn't shield assets from your taxable estate the way many people assume. We also touch on where an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) fits in.

Probate — the court process that's slow, expensive, and public. Branden and Carisa explain why business owners in particular want to avoid it, how a pour-over will works, and how a single outdated beneficiary designation can override your entire plan — including leaving an account to a prior spouse.

Gifting — the annual exclusion, split gifting between spouses, and the "direct support" exception for tuition and medical bills. Plus the step-up in basis: how gifting a home too early can accidentally hand your kids a large capital gains bill that passing it through a trust would have avoided.

The bottom line: estate planning is about making sure your plan actually does what you think it does. Review it regularly, check your beneficiary designations, and build a team that can help.

Timestamps:
(00:00) The blank pages most estate plans hide
(00:52) Welcome & why most estate plans aren't done
(02:27) The two sides of estate planning
(03:33) Your taxable estate & the 2026 exemption
(07:33) Irrevocable trusts and the ILIT
(08:50) What probate actually is
(09:40) Why probate is public — and risky for business owners
(13:22) Beneficiary designations override everything
(15:19) Gifting: the annual exclusion & split gifting
(17:02) Gifting a home & step-up in basis
(21:30) Long-term care and the sell-the-house trap
(25:53) The bottom line: does your plan do what you think?

Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Reach out — we'd love to hear from you.

Watch this episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/hq1NAkj3pas

To review your own estate plan with our team, visit ducharmewealth.com

—
Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Encompass More Asset Management LLC is a registered investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

The blank pages most estate plans hide

SPEAKER_05

I'm gonna say it's probably somewhere in like 95 out of a hundred of them. You flip through and all the pages are blank. The attorney said, Okay, now go home and just you know think through this a little bit more and you can fill out, you know, the final boxes and stuff. And it's like it's not even filled out, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um we start digging in and we find that people's homes aren't titled in their trusts the way they thought they were, right? Everyone's got an estate plan. It's your plan or the state's plan.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented. Encompass More Asset Management LLC is a registered investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

Welcome & why most estate plans aren't done

SPEAKER_05

All right. Join in the studio today uh my colleague Carissa Bertrand here. Uh Carissa, today we are talking estate planning.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. So many people think estate planning means um having a will or having some estate documents done and it's done, right? Um so often we talk to people about hey, do you have a you know clearly defined estate estate plan? And um we'll get kind of an answer of, yeah, we did one like in 2006. You know? And uh things have changed so much since then. Uh things in their own lives have changed so much since then. And then what I'm gonna say is, um, even if we take that at face value and we say, okay, hey, let's get a copy of it really quick.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Let's take a look and we start looking through it. Like, I'm gonna say it's probably somewhere in like 95 out of a hundred of them, you flip through and all the pages are blank. Right? Like there's blank pages that the attorney said, okay, now go home and just you know, think through this a little bit more and you can fill out, you know, the final boxes and stuff. And it's like it's not even filled out, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um we start digging in and we find that people's homes aren't titled in their trusts the way they thought they were, right?

SPEAKER_04

Um Or they've never like funded the trust by putting, you know, their bank accounts or their investment accounts into the trust.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And that's a big one.

SPEAKER_05

So they've got a nice looking trust package.

SPEAKER_04

Uh the binder from

The two sides of estate planning

SPEAKER_04

the binder's there.

SPEAKER_05

But it's really in effect not doing much for them, right? Um so listen, there's uh when we start talking to estate planning, there's two components that I always want people to remember, right? And um it's uh part of estate planning is actually for when you're alive. It's for the, hey, if I'm around and I need some help looking after my own affairs, right? So oftentimes that's incapacitation um or diminished diminished capacity. Sometimes it's actually just, hey, I'm out of the country, but I need somebody to represent me to go sign some, you know, legal or financial documents or whatever, right? Um that stuff happens too. That is like you could think of it like lifetime estate planning, right? So it's hey, um, are all my affairs in order, even though I'm still around, right? Like and we're gonna talk about that another time. We're gonna focus on today, is what people normally think, which is the hey, when I'm not around, what happens to my stuff?

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Right? Um, how does all that work? And to start that conversation, you have to remember that there is kind of there, there's three big components that I think

Your taxable estate & the 2026 exemption

SPEAKER_05

people have to be aware of, right? So there's your um taxable estate. Now most people are not gonna have to be too worried about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. Um then you've got your probate estate, and that one most people are gonna have to be worried about that, right? Um and and that's what they think of the third one.

SPEAKER_04

We're gonna talk about gifting.

SPEAKER_05

Gifting. Yep. And how that kind of plays into to everything, right? Um so we'll uh we'll come back to gifting at the end. Let's talk um taxable estate.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Right? How does uh I think we're gonna spend the least amount of time on this. How does it work?

SPEAKER_04

So with the taxable estate, basically you're just gonna get everything that belongs to your estate, all of your assets, everything. And then um you're gonna calculate out what's the exemption. So right now in 2026, um each individual person gets the $15 million of the federal exemption. Um so as a couple, it's $30 million. So that's why most people are not gonna worry too much about their taxable estate, right? Because there's not like the most common people are not gonna have the over $30 million in their estate that they need to worry about that paying taxes on that. Um that's part of it there. But just um like looking at how much do I own, like properties, um, bank accounts, 401ks, other investment things, yeah, the total value of all of that. And then we start calculating out from there what is actually taxable based on that. So that's kind of the starting point.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So if you're well under that $15 million threshold, um state tax uh at the federal level is not something that you're probably gonna have to worry about. Um varies state to state, right? And whenever we're talking about state planning, you have to remember different states, different rules, right? So some states um you know there isn't a state tax, there are certain thresholds, some are really low, right? Um I think Washington State is one of those in particular.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Um you just have to be aware around that. Um the uh next component of that to remember is that there it it's per spouse, right? So if you're a married couple. Um however, you have to make sure that you file like the elections the correct way to essentially like claim that. So if you have uh it's gonna get let I'm just gonna leave it here. It gets pretty complicated on making sure that administratively everything gets taken care of correctly. And let's just say once you're close to that, you know, that asset range, right? Or even half that asset range potentially, you want to, you know, start making sure that you're really buttoned up. But if you're well, you know, south of let's say, you know, eight to ten million dollars in net worth, um, and you're towards the end of your financial plan, you're on drawdown um uh the the drawdown phase of assets, right? Um estate tax is probably not the the thing most importantly on on the forefront of your mind.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um now if you're near that threshold and you're in your 40s, um you probably have some work to start doing and and laying some good groundwork, right? Um just getting out ahead of that issue.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_05

Um one of the big callouts around um uh taxable estates, right, is um you you have to remember, so you might be able to put something like in a trust. Like a lot of people think, well, they're trust, and they'll say, okay, well, um it's not, you know, I don't know, and it's in my trust, my trust sounds like well, if it's a just a normal, what am I calling the normal irrevocable living trust, like probably the most common that most people have, right? Um that is still gonna be it's not gonna be included in your probate estate, which we'll get to you, but it is gonna be included in your gross estate, right? So that's where things like a irrevocable trust comes into play where you can start um gifting assets and get them outside of not just your probate estate, but your actually your taxable estate as well.

Irrevocable trusts and the ILIT

SPEAKER_05

Right? Um common structure, something that actually used to be a lot more common in the early 2000s before the uh exemption limits went up so high was and it's still it's still common today with people in the exemption limit, right? It's something called an irrevocable life insurance trust or an islet.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Um and that is uh something where you um actually purchase the um life insurance contract through a irrevocable trust. So every year you put money into the trust under typically you try to do it under the annual gift tax exemptions, um, those premiums by the life insurance. And that life insurance when it pays, you know, upon your death, would be outside of your estate actually because it was an irrevocable trust, right? Properly set up and properly funded over a number of years. Um a number of ways to mess that up easily if you don't do it right. Um also a really conservative you know tool. So it's not something that somebody's ever going to get their estate you know rich or wealthy on, uh, almost certainly. Uh but you can provide liquidity to your estate um to navigate a a couple other issues, right? Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Especially if you're close to those exemption limits, it can help.

SPEAKER_05

We consider yeah, setting something like that up, um, just something to put on people's radar. So the next thing is more common for everyone to talk about probate estates.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

What probate actually is

SPEAKER_05

What is a probate estate?

SPEAKER_04

Aaron Ross Powell, so probate, just to start with that, is the court process to determine what your assets are, who does it go to. It's essentially the state's plan for your assets, right?

SPEAKER_05

Aaron Ross Powell Everyone's got an estate plan. It's your plan or the state's plan.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. Um and nobody really likes to go through the probate process because it can take a long time. Typically, I think it's like nine to twelve months for kind of a simple um probate cases. Um and it can get pretty expensive going through probate. Um but again, it's either your your plan or the state's plan. And so trying to avoid having your assets going through probate is it's so critical to make sure your state plan and your state documents are set up properly to avoid that as much as

Why probate is public — and risky for business owners

SPEAKER_04

possible.

SPEAKER_05

It's actually a very public process too, right? So probate is very, very public. Um I know that uh, you know, my dad, when he was a corporate CFO, they would actually look at competitors that um had an owner of the company, you know, pass away and didn't have their estate plan done, and their ownership in that company would have to go through probate. Well, that opened up the whole company, you know, for a small company to uh potentially be you know looked at quite in depth. We interrupt this program for a special announcement. We need you to please do us a favor, subscribe, like the channel, turn the notifications on, and do what you can to support it. I we, you know, we really appreciate it. We appreciate all the messages we get from people, the interaction. And again, as always, if there's ever anything you want us to talk about on the podcast, please just reach out, let us know. We want to hear from you and we want to discuss and go over the topics and things that you have questions about. Please don't hesitate to let us know. So if you're a business owner, you want to make sure that your partners, right, in a in a small, closely held business, are you know buttoned up on their estate planning so that that stuff just doesn't become a little bit more public for people to see, right? Now that extends to a person because like all of a sudden your family's business is potentially quite public. Um and you want to try to keep that as private as possible. Now, probate is not a universal process that you can just say, hey, I will not have anything go through probate. We don't want to participate, button me up. The reality is it's very, very difficult. I don't know that I've ever even heard of it successfully happening. There's probably attorneys that have seen it, but how rare that would be. And the reason why is um at the end of the day, you're just gonna have small things that just don't quite make it in, right? Um generally there's a document uh attorneys will lean on, um, oftentimes called like a pour over will.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Essentially a will that just says, hey, anything that wasn't in my trust, you know, put it in my trust, right? I want all my all my all my pots and pans to go to the trust, right? Um well that will still has to go to probate. Uh really generally easy to go through probate. It's you know highly intentional. Um generally a a judge is not gonna have you know issues with that, from my understanding. Uh so it's a pretty quick, easy process, right? But you know, you can't really title your pots and pans in the name of the trust. And so uh there's gonna be some kind of minor cleanup, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I think probably the most common thing with that is gonna be like vehicles and things like that that are gonna be sold that were not listed under the trust or registered under the individual's name.

SPEAKER_05

Aaron Powell Especially when they're financed, right? So um if vehicles are titled in an individual's name, typically when they're purchased and then financed, you can't really go and update the title into the name of the trust. Now, um, if they're uh paid off you have title in hand, I know in Utah you can go down to the DMV, get a new title, you know, title it in the name of the trust. Whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze for anyone's family is like that's a personal decision for sure, right? Return on hassle is still a metric when dealing with this stuff. Um but that is the kind of stuff that, yeah, hey, like you know, grandma's, you know, old Cadillac she's got might not have made it to be titled in the trust. So now it's gonna get probably swept up in that pour over will and get, you know, um inherited by the trust and then still distributed out accordingly. But that will still has to go through probate. You gotta probate the will, right? Yep. Um, so that's you know, the probate aside, um some things to realize with um probate, right? Or just even the passing

Beneficiary designations override everything

SPEAKER_05

of assets when you talk about um probate. One of the easy ways to get around uh probating an asset, um, especially in like the financial account space, is a direct beneficiary, right? So most commonly you're gonna see this on like life insurance contracts or um 401ks or IRA accounts, um, even bank accounts and brokerage accounts have it as an option, right, to do a transfer on death. So if you have that, right, um the most important thing to remember here is that will supersede any other estate planning you do.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

It doesn't matter if you have a uh uh a holographic will, which is where you write one out in your own handwriting, right, and say, hey, I want my 401k to go to um, you know, my my my current spouse, and if she, you know, if he or she is not around, then then my kids. If you have your ex-spouse as a beneficiary in that account, it doesn't matter that that will is it doesn't matter if it's a holographic will, if an attorney drafted it, it doesn't matter if you notarize it, it doesn't matter if you recorded a video of you typing it yourself and uh you signing it, you know, the the day before you pass, and right there's uh unlimited amount of documentation you know, undisputably that was your intention is to give it to your current spouse. Uh but on the forms you had prior spouse, it will go to your prior spouse.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Uh I would be would love to hear from an attorney that somehow got that overturned.

SPEAKER_04

I just don't think it's like I've not ever heard of that.

SPEAKER_05

Um and uh so direct beneficiaries will not go through probate, but they will supersede everything else, right? So great power comes great responsibility. Um that probate process is supposed to be like the state's backstop to give you an estate plan, right? Yeah. So if you work your way around that, remember those documents, there's an order of precedence. And um

Gifting: the annual exclusion & split gifting

SPEAKER_05

uh isn't that lovely? We're filming a podcast and now we got the vacuumers uh right outside. Okay, so uh moving on from probate to state, I think we just I we touch on direct beneficiaries really quick, right? Like um the last part I think is understanding gifting, right? That and this is something that um is not gonna be uh applicable to most people from like a monetary monetary standpoint, but from just an administrative standpoint.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Right?

SPEAKER_04

So something that I think gets forgotten quite frequently, like and yeah, and if you forget about it and you don't file and keep good records accordingly, right?

SPEAKER_05

It does become a monetary issue, right? You do have some taxes you'll have to um you know be on the hook for. Um What is the annual gift exemption currently in 2026?

SPEAKER_04

I believe it's 19,000 this year.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So that's per person. So you can elect now, like here's the so here's uh the quick explanation on this, guys. Um if Carissa wanted to give me money, she can like that's her right, right? Um I'll take it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Uh you can give me all the way up to $19,000. No one has to file any paperwork, it's all fine, right? If you give me $19,000 and one dollar, right? Um, you gotta you gotta file that gift tax, um, you know, that gift tax return, right? You technically owe gift tax on that last dollar you gave me. Okay. Um now you're married, and so if you wanted to give me $19,000 and your husband wanted to give me one dollar, that's okay. Yep, right. Um, as soon as uh you guys

Gifting a home & step-up in basis

SPEAKER_05

start exceeding those limits, so you want to start, you know, maybe declaring and keeping track of what they call split gifting, right? Which would say, hey, if you guys want to give me $20,000 as a couple, you're technically giving me $10, he's tech technically giving me $10, it's under the limit, no issues, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Um where we see people run into issues with this is oftentimes with um trying to give kids assets, right? So that lifetime gifting, hey, we want to um pay for, you know, our uh grandson or granddaughter's college education, right? It's it's gonna be uh $30,000 this year. Okay. That's okay. Just administratively, you want to handle that the right way. Now, in the case of education, you can pay for direct support. So you'd want to actually just pay for some of that stuff like directly to the college, maybe, right? Pay the tuition bill directly. Don't give him the money or her the money, just pay the college, right? Yep. Um that gets around, it's one of those exceptions to the rule. Okay, it's called direct support. Um uh one of the other things we'll see is around houses a lot of times, right?

SPEAKER_04

So talk to me about it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So a lot of times we'll get questions about like, so we know we want to give our kids this house. Um, like we have maybe they in the situation is they have multiple homes and they want to give their children one of the homes and then live in the other one.

SPEAKER_05

Or sometimes it's like the family cabin.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, something like that. They're like, is it better to give it to our kids now, or is it better to wait until we die? Um, there's always a lot of questions about like what's the best way to transfer that asset for tax purposes and like the ownership purposes to make sure it goes to whether it's the right child or whatever that situation is. Um, and so just talking through okay, what are your intentions behind giving this house? When do you want them to receive the ownership of it and the tax situation, looking at that as a whole? Those are all different scenarios that we need to understand before we can give recommendations on the best way to go about um gifting that property.

SPEAKER_05

Well, some really big callouts is um step up and basis in particular, right? So if you're under, if you are, if you're relatively confident you're gonna be well under that lifetime, you know, gift exemption, right, and and not be paying estate taxes. Um, you generally want to take advantage of what they call step up and basis, right? So on a house or like the family cabin, right, this would be the scenario. Mom and dad buy the family cabin for $50,000 back in the 80s, right? Yeah or 90s. And um now today it's worth half a million dollars. They have 10 extra money on it. Good for mom and dad, right? Um, if mom and dad put that home into um something as simple as, say, like a revocable living trust, and um, you know, say, hey, you know, when they are no longer able to be the beneficiaries, the um the next beneficiaries up are split it equally amongst the kids. Yeah, right. Um and mom and dad both pass, the kids receive the cabin. Um they will have a uh essentially a shared interest in the cabin via the trust. And um they can all kind of agree at that point. And this is where maybe having multiple assets or the ability to add liquidity to your state really matters from kind of equalizing up because you might have one kid that says, Hey, I don't really want part of the cabin, but you can just give him, you know, pay me out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Right. Um the important thing to understand is if the kids all just say in the scenario they said, Hey, let's just sell the cabin and take the cash, right? It's worth half a million dollars. You know, hey, we love mom and dad, we love our memories of the cabin, but we just we love half a million dollars in cash. Manage that. Okay. If mom and dad would have if mom and dad before they died would have said, you know what, let's just put all the kids on title with us, or let's put the oldest, the oldest brother or the oldest sibling on title with us, right? Um, their basis in the home would become $50,000. They inherit that same basis, right? Yep. And so if they sell at that point, if they sell the home for $450 or for $500,000, they have a capital gain of $450,000. Taxes is due on a capital gain of $450,000. Um, if mom and dad die using a trust to pass it appropriately, um, again, that basis steps up to the half a million dollars, they sell it for the half a million dollars, no capital gains is due. So if you're under that estate tax exemption, right? Hey, you don't pay the estate tax on passing it. And now they've received a step up and basis. This is a very beneficial

Long-term care and the sell-the-house trap

SPEAKER_05

um tax situation.

SPEAKER_04

Another scenario that I see this with quite often that comes up in conversation with clients is around like the long-term care plan. And a lot of people just say, like, think, well, I'll just sell my home to be able to use that, the proceeds to go to long term care and use that to pay for it. But this is part of that conversation of like, okay, are you, you know, what's your exemption um ability on your primary home? How much is your basis? And how much taxes are you gonna have to reach? Realize if you sell that home to then use those funds to go for long-term care. And so just having that be part of the conversation and understanding what are your options, what does that look like if you do sell your home while you're alive, the rest of the money can go to your kids.

SPEAKER_05

A lot of this comes yeah, a lot of this comes down to multi-generational conversations. In the long-term care conversation, it's not all that uncommon to have, you know, maybe the kids support mom and dad slightly, right? Whether that's through an official loan or, you know, gifting, you know, upstream. Uh just saying, hey, you're right at the end. We're dealing with, you know, a hospice care or we're dealing with stuff that's really unsavory at the end. Last thing you want to deal with is like sell the house too.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

But also, like the last thing you want to do is sell the house before you get a setup and basis, right? So if mom and dad just need liquidity, right? Sometimes they can just receive that in from internally within the family. Um, again, every family can choose to go about that differently, obviously, right? Sometimes more formal, sometimes more informal. Um, it it all depends. But what you don't want to do generally is say, well, I don't want to have that conversation. So I'll just sell the home, we'll incur a, you know, uh or the cabin or whatever it is, right? Or I'll sell all the assets in my brokerage account, or I'll sell all this stuff. Hey, well, we'll just pay a bill and you know, kids can have what's left. Meanwhile, the kids, had they understood the situation or knew what was going on, would be um, you know, more than happy to provide, you know, if they're particularly well off, maybe some additional support or help, mom and dad, to help just maximize the um the assets in in the family's estate at the end of that whole situation, right? Um at the end of the day, keeping assets and you know, I you always hate to make these conversations about the assets, right?

SPEAKER_04

But the I mean it also comes down to logistics too, of selling the home. What's your time frame of like being able to sell it and for the value and like being forced to get go through everything, like when you're trying to take care of your parents? There's just I mean, there's a lot of little things.

SPEAKER_05

We're selling an illiquid asset in a in a in a in a rapid pace, right? Is gonna have a detrimental impact, generally speaking, too, right? So there's always all these things to consider when you're talking about estate planning, and it is way more c you know involved, I'm gonna say, than, hey, are you above or below $30 million in net worth, right? Yeah. Um uh you know, to give an example of a win recently is like we had uh um a client we're working with that wanted to gift money to um you know one of their children. And uh um rather than just and it's for a couple of years out, it's for maybe an intentional purpose, um, but they own some appreciated assets, and so there's an opportunity set. Well, hey, rather than um, you know, gift those assets today, right, before they need them, um, you could isolate those um assets in uh in a direct, you know, an account with a direct beneficiary and uh receive a step up and basis, you know, so like the the the child could inherit the assets um in the future with a stepped-up basis, right? So that saves you on um taxes in in the present. Um the kid receives the child receives the um assets. Meanwhile, the the parents do maintain control so something changes in the meantime. No uh irreversible events have happened.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um it's just that that moment of preparation is all right. And then that's what this stuff is all about is that that thinking through those moments of preparation and doing what you can to put your affairs in order with a lot of intention so that you can minimize the the cost, minimize the taxes, um, right, and uh increase the intentionality. Make sure things go where you want them to go for the things

The bottom line: does your plan do what you think?

SPEAKER_05

that you want them to go for, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I think that's really the biggest call out when it comes to estate planning is you know, making sure you understand that your plan is set up the way that you're wanting it to be set up. I think a lot of times people have the idea of what they want to have happen, but their plan does not necessarily state that. Um and so going through these reviews, looking at your estate plan on a regular basis, working with professionals, attorneys, um, financial advisors, and even um like accountants, CPAs, having that good team around you to help you understand the implications of the decisions that you're making and the way that you want to have things play out, um, that your documents and that you're, you know, like going through and actually funding your trust and things like that um are done the right way so that it it actually follows the plan that you intend to have happen.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So it's the whole point of planning.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

Right. Uh try to give your yourself the best chance of the the intended outcome, right? So um with that, let this be, you know, your subtle reminder, midsummer here. Um uh to be thinking through, you know, who are your your your beneficiaries you know, listed on different accounts, right?

SPEAKER_04

Double check all your bank accounts, all your life insurance, any accounts that you have. If you have a listed beneficiary like we talked about before, make sure it's who you want it to be.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah. Um, if you don't have documents set up yet, you know, like um uh work with uh some professionals that can help you get those documents, you know, um set up, organized, uh uh funded, recorded, uh, you know, all the things that need to happen. Um, and so, you know, normally this is something we focus on in in in Q1 um for just that kind of you know beginning of the year cleanup. Yeah. But, you know, hey, here's a nice subtle uh midsummer reminder um that is generally like really spurred by the integration that it has with a lot of the insurance planning we're doing this time of year, right? When you think talking about life insurance or long term care, right, and and how that all works from a tax and estate perspective as well, right? So um that rock and roll, everyone. See you guys out there.