Tennessee Estate Planning Law : Tennessee Estate Planning Lawyer & Attorney : Bryan Howard : Howard & Mobley Law Firm : Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis

In a recent case, Cajun Industries, LLC vs. Robert Kidder, et al., the decedent designated his three children as beneficiaries of his 401(k) plan after his first wife died. He remarried a few months before he died and did not realize he needed to make any changes because he still wanted his 401(k) plan to go to his children. Unfortunately, when he died, his new wife successfully claimed the entire 401(k) account due to a federal law known as ERISA. This law required Mr. Kidder to fill out a new beneficiary form after he remarried and to obtain the consent of his new wife.  Because his wife had not consented to his designation in favor of his children, ERISA required the account to be distributed to his wife.

There were two other potential solutions that would have allowed the funds in the 401(k) account to go to Mr. Kidder’s children. Prior to getting married, Mr. Kidder could have asked his wife to sign a prenuptial agreement wherein she agreed to sign a waiver of his 401(k) plan. Alternatively, before he married, Mr. Kidder could have rolled his 401(k) account to an IRA and then designated his children as beneficiaries of his IRA. The rules requiring a spousal waiver to a beneficiary designation do not apply to IRAs.

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Some people mistakenly assume that their Will controls the disposition of all of their assets. There are several ways that your assets pass to someone outside of your Will.

Assets that are owned as tenants by the entirety with your spouse or joint with right of survivorship will pass to the other owner or owners by operation of law.

A large number of assets pass by beneficiary designation. Common examples are bank accounts, retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans and IRAs, and life insurance. See the enclosed article from Fidelity regarding important considerations in your choice of beneficiary designation.

If you transfer ownership of your assets to a trust before you die, the trust will dictate how the assets pass upon your death. A number of my clients have transferred all or a portion of their assets to a revocable trust or an asset protection trust.

Under Tennessee law, your spouse is entitled to elect against your Will and receive a share of your estate, year’s support, exempt property, and homestead. As a general rule, your spouse will elect to receive these benefits when they are better than the Will.

Even if your Will does not direct your Executor to pay your debts, your creditors will file claims against your estate and will be paid prior to the beneficiaries named under your Will.

Even if your Will does not direct your Executor to pay your tax obligations, the IRS and the State of Tennessee have priority over the beneficiaries of your Estate regarding the payment of income, inheritance, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, including interest and penalties. They have a “secret” lien against all of the assets of your Estate. If the Executor of your Estate fails to pay your tax obligations, the IRS and the State of Tennessee will be able to collect taxes from your Executor (to the extent that the Executor has distributed assets to the beneficiaries) or from the beneficiaries of your Estate (to the extent that they received assets from your Estate or from other methods such as beneficiary designations).

Because there are so many ways to receive assets that are not dependent on the terms of your Will, it is very important to make sure that you account for all of these potential non-testamentary transfers when planning for the disposition of your assets.

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Over the course of my career, I have worked with several clients who knew they had but a few months to live due to inoperable cancer. As a general rule, these clients have been mentally sharp when I have worked with them.

The knowledge that death will occur in the near future causes the client to be keenly focused on making sure their estate planning affairs are in order. It is basic to make sure that the client has incapacity documents such as a living will, health care power of attorney, and a financial power of attorney.

There are numerous financial matters to be considered. Perhaps ownership of assets can be changed to avoid probate or to provide tax benefits. Should gifts be made to children and grandchildren? Should a revocable trust be utilized in order to avoid probate? Beneficiary designations on assets such as retirement accounts and life insurance policies should be verified.

One married client changed the ownership of the house into his name and changed the beneficiary of his life insurance policy to his estate. These steps will provide his estate with enough assets to fund a credit shelter trust. The credit shelter trust will save substantial estate and inheritance taxes upon the subsequent death of his wife.

The estate planning steps outlined above would be equally effective for any client nearing the end of his or her life. Unfortunately, a lot of terminal illnesses incapacitate the client to the point that he or she is not able to accomplish them. The only “good” thing about terminal cancer is that it generally gives the client adequate time to get their affairs in order and to say their good-byes.
 

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