Will or Trust vs Beneficiary Designation

29 Feb 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:58

In this short YouTube explainer, attorney Jerry Taylor presents a hypothetical scenario to illustrate a fundamental estate‑planning rule: the person named as a beneficiary on a financial instrument (such as a life‑insurance policy, retirement account, or bank account) receives the proceeds, even if a will or trust states otherwise. He describes a $500,000 life‑insurance benefit where the policy’s beneficiary designation names his friend Jerry Taylor, while the decedent’s will leaves the money to the decedent’s son. Upon death, the insurance company pays the friend because the beneficiary designation outranks the will. Taylor emphasizes that beneficiary designations always win, and concludes with a call‑to‑action to contact him for legal services and subscribe to his newsletter.

Chapters

If you can answer this question correctly, you might save someone in your family from being involved in a lawsuit for years. Here's the scenario. You have a life insurance policy that will pay a benefit of $500,000 at your death. You also have a will that says you want the $500,000 life insurance benefit to go to your son, but the insurance company has a document you filled out when you took out the policy saying you wanted the entire $500,000 benefit to go to your good friend Jerry Taylor Taylor. When you die, who gets the $500,000? If you said the son because the will gave the money to him, you're wrong. Jerry Taylor would get the $500,000 because he is listed as the beneficiary with the insurance company. Beneficiary designations, whether they be on a life insurance policy, a retirement account, or a bank account, or some other type of account or policy, win every time. Click on my picture and my link to work with me and get my newsletter.