GGM Wealth Advisors

Protect it

Signed documents are not a finished plan

Most estate problems we find are not missing documents. They are documents that no longer match the accounts, the titling, or the family.

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In one paragraph

Estate coordination makes sure your legal documents and your financial accounts describe the same plan. It covers beneficiary designations, how assets are titled, whether trusts created on paper were ever actually funded, and keeping all of it current as marriages, births, moves, and account changes accumulate.

The problem

The gap between the binder and the accounts

You paid an attorney, signed a stack of documents, and put the binder on a shelf. That was the right first step, and it is where most plans stop.

The failures are mundane and expensive. Beneficiary designations override your will, and a retirement account still naming a former spouse will pay that person regardless of what the will says. A trust drafted years ago that was never funded controls nothing. Assets titled individually may pass through probate even with a trust in place. A move to another state changes which rules apply.

For business owners there is a further layer. A buy-sell agreement without funding behind it is an intention. Your family finds out which one it was at the worst possible moment.

What we actually do

The work, item by item

  1. Audit every beneficiary designation

    Retirement accounts, insurance policies, transfer-on-death registrations, HSAs. Primary and contingent. This single review catches more real problems than anything else on this list.

  2. Check titling against the documents

    Whether accounts and property are held in the way your plan assumes, and whether trusts that exist on paper actually hold anything.

  3. Confirm trusts were funded

    An unfunded trust is a common and costly gap, and it is invisible unless someone compares the documents to the account registrations.

  4. Bring liquidity into the picture

    Estate costs, taxes where applicable, and business obligations need cash at a specific moment. We look at where that cash comes from rather than assuming it appears.

  5. Work alongside your attorney

    We do not draft documents and we do not provide legal advice. We make sure your attorney's work is reflected in the accounts, and that changes on our side get back to them.

  6. Revisit on the events that matter

    Marriage, divorce, birth, death, a move to a new state, a business sale, a large inheritance. Each one is a trigger to review rather than a reason to redo everything.

Straight answers

Estate & legacy: common questions

Related

These usually come up alongside it

This material is for general educational purposes only and is not intended as tax, legal, or investment advice. Neither GGM Wealth Advisors nor Cambridge provides tax or legal advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.

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Bring whatever is on your mind: a vest date you are unsure about, an offer you are weighing, a business you might sell in three years. Nothing to prepare, no cost, and you will leave with something useful whether or not we end up working together.

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