The answer is usually a resounding no. On the estate planning side of the practice, clients come to us with a jumble of transfer options that are not coordinated. They are getting contradictory advice from insurance agents, financial planners, banks, and investment companies. They have done what these persons have suggested and they think [...]
In Texas, a will controls assets owned by an estate. A trust controls assets owned by the trust. The will, therefore, does not control accounts or assets that transfer by a beneficiary designation of some kind. The will does not control direct transfers by right of survivorship agreements. Why not, you may ask? Well, [...]
There are several common problems we see with beneficiary designations. First, there is the "unintentional beneficiary". These occur when we are fairly certain that the owner of the account added another person as a convenient signer, but the bank created, without the owner's knowledge, a "joint right of survivorship account." Surely the bank will fix [...]