Surprisingly Disinherited

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Kari Kennedy’s father died and she was crushed emotionally.  But when she found out that Liv, her dad’s ex-wife inherited more than $400,000, she got the biggest surprise of her life.  Liv and her dad had been divorced for many years.  In fact, she has a copy of their divorce decree which says that Liv is waiving all her rights to any retirement plan.

It may sound impossible but it’s true.  Estate planning looks so simple but it’s filled with pitfalls and landmines.  So if you failed to change the beneficiary in your retirement plan or insurance form your true heirs cannot contest it if you accidentally pass away.  In the above example, the law governing qualified retirement plans triumphs over the divorce decree.

This happens all the time.  Well-meaning individuals don’t change their beneficiary forms frequently and not willing to spend any money in hiring an estate-planning attorney.  They also forget that the results can be very disastrous.

Therefore, estate planning attorneys recommend that everyone should review all assets that they own - each legal document, trust, will, real estate titles, insurance policy, annuity, IRA, and retirement plan.  If you do this regularly, you’ll be sure that the inheritors of your belongings will be according to your wishes.

Tags: attorney, Divorce, Estate Planning, estate planning attorney, Kari Kennedy, legal document, retirement plan
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