Beneficiary Designations and Asset Titling

The best estate plan will not work if beneficiary designations and asset titling are not coordinated with the provisions of the will and trust. Common mistakes include adding a child's name to a house deed, adding one child as the transfer on death beneficiary of a financial account to the exclusion of the other children, or not avoiding the probate process by transferring the asset to a trust or adding a transfer on death designation.

I always provide my clients with a list of how to address beneficiary designations and asset titling issues. If the issues are not handled properly, one child can inadvertently inherit most of the estate to the chagrin, and lasting contempt and hostility, of the other children.

"Zombie" Bank Accounts

I suspect we will see more of this as banks consolidate further and more transactions become electronic. A bank account was closed after the owner died, but the bank reopened the account as a "zombie account" when scheduled electronic withdrawals were made. Bank of America apparently did not have a procedure for keeping closed accounts closed when electronic transactions were attempted to be made post account closing. Nor did it have a policy for dealing with worthless mortgages, but that is a different subject.

The best bet for the estate executor would be to close the account and open the estate account at a different institution.