Estate coordination / Included, or $1,800
Your plan and your attorney, in one room.
Most estate plans fail on paperwork, not law. The trust is perfect and the house was never put in it. We check every account against every document, then sit with your attorney until they agree.
The problem
The documents say one thing. The accounts say another.
We are not attorneys and we do not draft documents. What we do is the part attorneys are not paid to do and families never get around to. A revocable trust only controls what is titled to it. An IRA passes by its beneficiary form, not by the will. A brokerage account with a transfer on death designation from 2011 goes to the person named in 2011.
In the first Discover meeting we pull the beneficiary designation on every account and the title on every asset, and we lay them next to the documents. In about half of new client families, something does not match. A former spouse. A child who has since been born. A trust that was signed and never funded.
Fixing it is usually forms, not lawyers. When it is lawyers, we book the meeting, bring the list and sit in it with you.
The beneficiary audit
Every account, one table.
| Asset | Passes by | Currently names | Plan says | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 401(k), employer | Beneficiary form | Spouse 100% | Spouse, then trust | Add contingent |
| Roth IRA | Beneficiary form | Former spouse | Spouse, then children | Replace, today |
| Brokerage, joint | Title | Joint tenants | Trust | Retitle to trust |
| House | Deed | Individuals | Trust | Attorney records new deed |
| Term life, $1.5M | Beneficiary form | Spouse 100% | Spouse, then trust for minors | Add contingent |
The audit is repeated every spring in the Maintain review, because accounts get opened, jobs change and forms reset to blank more often than anyone expects.
With your attorney
One meeting, three chairs.
If you have an estate attorney, we send them the audit and the one page plan before the meeting so nobody bills an hour reading. If you do not, we give you three local names and no referral fee changes hands in either direction.
In the meeting we cover what the documents need to do that the plan already assumes: who manages money for a child, whether the trust should hold the IRA at all, how the house passes to a child who lives in it, whether a charitable bequest should come from the IRA instead of the brokerage account to save the heirs tax. The attorney drafts. We fund. You sign once.
Estate coordination is included in every retirement planning engagement and most equity compensation ones. It is offered standalone for families who already have a plan elsewhere and suspect the paperwork has drifted. See pricing for the single fee.
- Fee
- Included with planning. $1,800 flat as a standalone engagement.
- Includes
- Beneficiary and titling audit, a trust funding checklist, one joint meeting with your attorney, the forms pre-filled, a follow up to confirm every change landed.
- Does not include
- Legal advice or documents. Your attorney bills separately for the drafting.
- Timeline
- Audit in two weeks. Attorney meeting in the month after. Follow up at 90 days.