Encore: The Fine Print of Beneficiary Designations
Big Picture Retirement®
Devin Carroll
4.7 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we're bringing back a fan favorite from 2022. The Fine Print of Beneficiary Designations.
This is something that seems straightforward at first glance - just fill out a form naming the people you wish to inherit your account in the event that you pass away.
Seems simple enough, right?
What lurks in the background is some nuance contained within these designations that may result in unexpected outcomes.
Two examples:
-Not properly designating per stirpes vs. pro rata can actually lead to accidentally disinheriting members of your family that you had NO intention of cutting out
-Leaving a trust as the beneficiary can be the perfect solution or the worst solution (depending on the language in your trust)
In this episode, John and Devin discuss how to ensure your assets will be passed in accordance with your desires (without leaving a tax bomb as a parting gift).
If you're thinking "I love the Big Picture Retirement podcast" please consider rating and reviewing this show! This helps us support more people -- just like you -- move toward a confident retirement. Just scroll down to the "ratings and reviews" section, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review."
Although this show does not provide specific tax, legal, or financial advice, you can engage Devin or John through their individual firms.
Contact Devin's team at https://www.carrolladvisory.com/
Contact John's team at https://www.rossandshoalmire.com/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, welcome to the Big Picture Retirement Show. |
| 0:02.8 | I'm your host, Devin, and like we did last week, we're going to be bringing back one of our most downloaded episodes. |
| 0:11.0 | With the growth that we've seen in the last year, we know that some of you haven't had the chance to go back and listen to some of these shows that have been really hot and this is one of them that you |
| 0:24.1 | don't want to miss. This is the fine print of beneficiary designations and let me tell you |
| 0:31.2 | ever since we released it, it's been smoking hot so I know it's on the minds of a lot of people |
| 0:36.9 | and as we head into the new year with New Year's resolutions, this is something that you need to pay attention to. |
| 0:44.3 | And if you haven't checked it in a while, you need to. |
| 0:47.2 | But listen to this show first, and you're going to find out some of the nuances that's hidden within these beneficiary designations that might make things |
| 0:56.7 | a little bit different than what you expect. Now, John and I do fully plan to be back early in |
| 1:04.1 | January with new episodes. We're working on some fantastic titles right now. What no one tells you |
| 1:09.6 | about retirement, which is based on a survey |
| 1:11.6 | that we sent out and got, it was over a thousand respondents back of people saying, hey, |
| 1:17.3 | these are the things that no one told us to expect once we retired. And then another one is |
| 1:23.1 | the hidden tax benefits of investment location. You know, if you just have the old 60-40 portfolio and you've got that evenly allocated |
| 1:30.7 | across all your accounts, you might be missing out on some big tax savings. |
| 1:36.3 | And then another one that I'm throwing out there carefully because I know it's going to |
| 1:40.8 | ruffle some feathers, but it's the three reasons you should use a flat fee |
| 1:45.3 | financial advisor. And like I said last week, I'm going to save the juice of what's in this one |
| 1:52.9 | for when we actually release that episode. And then we're talking about an estate planning checklist. |
| 1:58.4 | This is critical information for someone to go through to make sure that |
| 2:03.0 | they're going to leave that estate just like they want to leave it. All right, let's get to today's |
| 2:09.3 | episode. You know, when we're talking about beneficiary designations, what is lurking in the |
... |
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