How Can You Be Sure Your Assets Will Transition Smoothly to Beneficiaries?

How can you and your family ensure a smooth transition of assets? Learn about the importance of preparation and effective communication when preparing your Estate Plan. To get quick and valuable information on this important matter, check out this quick and informative clip of Attorney Justin Randall's appearance on Local 5 Live below.

Lisa Malak
Welcome back, everybody. Having an estate plan can contribute to family harmony and ensure the smooth transition of assets.

Millaine Wells
So we're talking about it today with attorney Justin Randall of Cooper Law Office. Good morning to you, Justin.

Justin Randall
Good morning, guys.

Millaine Wells
So how does the estate plan do those things that we just mentioned when it comes to families and their assets?

Justin Randall
Yeah. So, I mean, one of the biggest things we always try to do is help maintain family harmony through this entire process. And having your intent really known before your family's trying to figure all this stuff out can be really important. We see a lot of things go wrong when things are kind of left up in the air, whether that's just where things are supposed to go, where they want their assets to go. But one of the biggest and sort of overlooked aspects is when it comes to bill paying in particular, and who's responsible for that. If you don't have that defined in your estate plan and you just wait and see what's going to happen, that's where a lot of disputes come up.

Lisa Malak
So that makes sense. So in the process of estate planning, what factors should individuals consider and weigh when we're deciding how to distribute assets among beneficiaries?

Justin Randall
Yeah, you really want to look at the difference between what's fair and what's equal. A lot of people think those are the same thing, but they are varied, different. Equal is obviously equal. You're dividing things up equally amongst the number of people you have in your estate plan. But sometimes fair is not equal because one person's maybe contributed more, maybe to a family business, the family farm, or to help mom and dad out.

Justin Randall
So you really need to consider not just how many people you're including in your plan, but how is it you want things divided up and is it really fair or are you just going off of what's equal?

Millaine Wells
And what role does communication between family members play in this estate plan?

Justin Randall
So communication is key. Of course, communication between the people who've created the estate plan can be helpful. But I also understand that some people want to keep things private. Of course, they may not want to reveal everything to their kids right away of, you know, how they're dividing things up or who's in charge. It is important to communicate with the key people in your estate plan, you know, in particular, who's going to be the personal representative if you are using a will or who's going to be the trustee if you're using a trust, letting those people know what it is they're expected to do, where to find things is really important.

Justin Randall
But with that trustee or personal representative, really the person handling all of these things after you pass away, it's really important for them to communicate well with the beneficiaries as much as it is for you to communicate with that person. Because when things are not well communicated between that trustee or personal representative and those beneficiaries, sometimes when people are grieving or upset, they start to get suspicious when they really don't have a good reason to be. There's not something that that person is doing wrong, but that lack of communication can cause that to be the appearance to them anyway.

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