Jason and Michelle are long-time clients. Over the years, we have assisted them with just about every service we offer; planning for Medicare and their options, financial retirement planning, etc. A few weeks ago, our Planning Department received a text stating they were “preparing to fund a Trust and wanted to make sure there was no issue with moving their retirement accounts into them”.
Our financial team called the clients to see what was going on; seems they had visited their attorney and were seeking advice as to whether their Trust needed to be amended. The attorney they met with advised them they needed a new Trust as the current one was worded improperly and the laws had changed. To get all this corrected it would only cost $2,700.00.
Although they both felt uneasy, they processed the payment to move forward, as they were worried about their affairs not being in order before an upcoming trip.
They were concerned their house and IRAs were not in their Trust. We explained all their accounts with us were IRAs and already had named beneficiaries in the event something happened to either of them.
Jason called the attorney back explaining their financial team assured them their IRAs had their son and daughter named as a beneficiary, so they didn’t think they needed to change those. He also continued to ask if he thought he should just dissolve the Trust since Arizona allows for a beneficiary deed, and the bank accounts could be held as TOD (transfer on death). The attorney explained the Trust was recommended more for protection for the children from a lawsuit than probate. Jason and Michelle were now even more confused; their entire reason for getting the Trust in the first place was to avoid probate.
“OK, let’s just have a little conference call with the attorney”, we offered. As we continued the discussion with the attorney, there was a somewhat different reaction to our inquiry as we asked very specific questions. When the call was completed, it was decided that the couple didn’t really need a new Trust. In this case, a Trust would have complicated a rather easy estate.
It’s all about asking the right questions and knowing your rules and regulations, as we explained to the relieved couple,
“You just saved us $2,700”, they both exclaimed! It’s what we do, to make everything 123 Easy!