The entire staff of Shasta Legacy Law Center took the afternoon off yesterday to watch the Super Bowl.  What an exciting game that was!

We also voted on best commercial.  Although there was some debate over whether it was the “I'm 85 and I Wanna' Go Home” E*Trade Commercial or the dancing football players commercial or the Tide series of commercials, ultimately we decided that the winner was the E*Trade commercial.  You can view it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ILxrRlf3KY

It's tragically hilarious, making the point that a shockingly high percentage of Americans have no retirement savings.

If you DO have retirement savings in a qualified plan such as an individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401(k) account, be sure to take that into account when designing your estate plan.  Here are some issues to consider:

• How to designate beneficiaries correctly to ensure the maximum “stretch”, allowing the beneficiaries to defer withdrawals as long as possible for income tax savings.
• Whether any special precautions need to be taken to protect beneficiaries that are at risk of losing their inheritances due to creditors and predators.  Inherited retirement accounts are NOT automatically protected from creditors and predators, but they can be with proper planning.
• What will happen if your surviving spouse inherits the account but at that time does not have the capacity to update his or her beneficiary designations.

If you have any concerns about whether your estate plan has these issues covered, please feel free to call us to make an appointment to review your existing beneficiary designations.  If you are an existing client, this consultation is FREE.