Author: Suzanne Candela

What comes to mind when you think of spring? 

Maybe it is blooming flowers, buzzing insects, singing birds, or the fresh smell of the earth after a rain. Your thoughts might turn to outdoor pursuits as the days grow warmer and longer. Memorial Day is not far off, marking the unofficial start of summer. Soon, the summer solstice will arrive, followed by the Fourth of July, the kids going back to school, and Labor Day. 

Before lamenting how quickly the time has passed and what you never got around to doing, it can be helpful for your personal, professional, and financial well-being to step back and give some thought and energy to reevaluating your goals and priorities for the next 100 days. 

Spring is an opportune season for housekeeping, both literally and metaphorically. It is time to throw open the windows of your life, let in the fresh air, and catch up on the small chores that often get pushed aside amid modern life’s frenetic pace—including dusting off your estate plan, clearing away outdated documents, and tidying up your financial house.

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring (Cleaning) 

According to the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), 80 percent of Americans engage in an annual spring-cleaning routine.¹ The top areas people target in their homes are those that tend to get overlooked in daily and weekly cleaning, including floors and baseboards, storage spaces, windows, and areas behind furniture.² 

Atop our list of dreaded places to clean are the spaces that are hard to access (such as underneath appliances) and have accumulated a winter’s worth of grime (e.g., bathrooms, vents, and basements). However, 80 percent of Americans also told ACI that cleaning those filthy spots is better than at least one other seasonal activity: doing their taxes.³ 

Spring cleaning has roots in cultures and religious traditions that date back centuries, including the Jewish practice of cleaning homes to remove chametz (leavened bread) for Passover and the Iranian tradition of khaneh tekani (“shaking the house”) before the Persian New Year.

Some Christian traditions, such as cleaning the church altar before Good Friday or cleaning for Lent, also have elements of spring cleaning. In China, a thorough cleaning of the house before the Lunar New Year is a tradition that incorporates religious practices and symbolizes sweeping away ill fortune to make room for positive energy in the coming year. 

In nineteenth-century America, the custom of spring cleaning took hold as pioneers swept out the soot and grime from winter’s coal once warmer days allowed open windows.

A spotless house can have a therapeutic effect that gives you a sense of control and the peace of mind that your family is living in a clean, safe environment. The same thinking can also apply to your estate plan. 

In a recent survey, nearly one-quarter of Americans said that they have not updated their estate plan since creating it.⁴ Others have not touched it in the past 10 years and, for some, it has been 15 years or more.⁵

Like those spots under the couch and behind the refrigerator, your estate plan, if left untouched in a drawer, can gather dust. You need to occasionally take it out and clear away outdated beneficiaries, guardians, and powers of attorney; spruce up your list of assets; and scrub clean the dingy aspects of your plan so they clearly reflect your current life circumstances. 

For example, maybe you recently opened an investment account that has not been added to your estate plan. There could also be events, such as a birth, death, or marriage in the family, that affect your plan. If you do not polish up your plan once in a while, you risk a stain on your legacy by not leaving your money and property to the right people in the right way. 

With the dreaded tax season behind us, now is also a good time to dust off financial strategies for the year ahead, such as reviewing deductions, contributions, and estimated tax payments; organizing financial documents for the first half of the year; preparing for midyear adjustments; going over any changes to tax and estate planning laws; assessing asset allocations; and, if you filed a tax extension, preparing for the October 15 deadline. 

Shifting from Tax Breaks to Summer Break

Summer vacation is something you may look forward to year-round but start preparing for months in advance. However, if you do not give your vacation plans a once-over in the weeks and months leading up to departure, you could find that there are some spots that need a touch-up. 

Many Americans skipped their summer vacation last year due to affordability concerns.⁶ However, more than one-third were so committed to traveling over the summer that they said they were willing to go into debt to pay for their trip.⁷ 

If you plan to vacation this summer, you can get your pre-getaway ducks in a row by taking the following steps: 

• Schedule bill payments
• Inform your bank and credit card companies about your plans to avoid account freezes or card blocks
• Secure travel documents (e.g., passports and insurance cards)
• Check local laws at your destination to avoid legal, cultural, and safety and security issues
• Ensure that your financial and healthcare powers of attorney are valid, accurate, and, for international travel, recognized in the country you plan to visit

An Estate Plan for All Seasons

Aligning our personal and professional lives with the natural rhythm of the seasons and the rituals surrounding it can help us feel more grounded. Viewed in this context, estate planning is not just about documents—it reflects the dynamic, ever-changing flux of life and the need to harmonize with it. 

Seasons change, lives change, and estate plans should change as we encounter certain natural milestones and key life events, such as birth or adoption; a beneficiary reaching adulthood; illness, death, or disability in the family; starting a job or closing a business; or a significant change in asset values or net worth. 

Life, like spring weather, can be unpredictable and change quickly. However, with the right plan and the right advisors in place, you can be prepared for whichever way the wind blows.

As you look ahead to the next 100 days, take time this spring to remove the cobwebs from your estate plan, sweep your financial floors clean, and clear the decks for a stress-free and enjoyable summer.

To discuss updates to your estate plan, call us.

1. Are You Ready to Clean Behind the Couch? Americans List Their Spring Cleaning Targets, Am. Cleaning Inst. (Mar. 4, 2025), https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/newsroom/2025/are-you-ready-clean-behind-couch-americans-list-their-spring-cleaning-targets.  ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. ACI Survey: 80% of Americans Now Spring Clean Every Year, ACI (Mar. 6, 2024), https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/newsroom/2024/aci-survey-80-americans-now-spring-clean-every-year.  ↩︎
4. Victoria Lurie, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring (Mar. 31, 2025), https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey.  ↩︎
5. Id. ↩︎
6. Katie Kelton, Survey: More Than 1 in 3 American Travelers Plan to Go into Debt for Their Summer Vacations This Year, Bankrate (Apr. 22, 2024), https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/news/survey-summer-vacation ↩︎
7. Id. ↩︎

President Trump’s First 100 Days in Office

President Trump entered office having won the electoral college and with relatively strong approval ratings. On his first day in office, he issued over 25 executive orders, and in his first 30 days, he issued more than 70,¹ seeking to make good on his promises to transform the federal government, ignite an economic boom, and revive the American Dream.² 

The Trump administration has been unable to produce much in the way of legislation, however; the president has run into political and economic realities that have slowed his momentum and made it harder to deliver on his promises, some of which could impact your estate planning and financial decisions. 

Estate, Tax, and Wealth Planning Implications of Trump’s Actions

Despite the many uncertainties facing Trump’s agenda, his administration has strongly signaled that tax-related measures are a top priority. 

Trump and Republicans want to extend many provisions from the expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that the president signed into law in his first term.³ There could also be new tax cuts, such as Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits.⁴ 

Here are some of Trump’s and the GOP’s reported tax priorities for their economic package: 

• Estate and gift tax. The TCJA doubled the estate and gift tax exemption to historically high levels that are set to expire in 2026. Senate majority leader John Thune introduced a bill in February to repeal the estate tax, sometimes referred to as the death tax.⁵ Further, a full repeal of the estate tax is reportedly part of the tax bill negotiations.⁶ Another option on the table is to extend the current exemption rather than repealing it outright. 
• Individual and business tax cuts. The TCJA also included several provisions that benefit businesses and individual taxpayers, including pass-through income deduction, business expense deductions, changes to income tax brackets, mortgage interest and charitable donation deductions, an increased standard deduction, and additional tax relief via the Child Tax Credit. Extending the TCJA would likely keep these tax benefits in place.
• State and local tax (SALT) deductions. The administration is considering removing or increasing the current $10,000 cap on SALT deductions imposed by the TCJA.⁷ This change would benefit taxpayers in states with high property and income taxes, allowing greater federal tax deductions.
• Closing the carried interest loophole. Trump has stated his intention to close the carried interest loophole that allows investment managers of private equity and hedge funds to benefit from reduced capital gains tax rates on carried interest, provided a three-year holding period is met.⁸
• Capital gains taxes. The TCJA separated tax-rate income brackets for capital gains and dividend income from the tax brackets for ordinary income. If the TCJA expires and this provision is not addressed legislatively, some taxpayers could face higher capital gains taxes in 2026. 

If you are currently affected by any of these TCJA tax laws, or if you are not sure whether they affect you, contact us so we can discuss ways to help you prepare for them ending in 2026 or being extended this year. 

For example, depending on your risk appetite and estate size, you may want to use gifting and trust-based strategies to lock in currently high exemption levels or sell some of your highly appreciated securities now to avoid potentially higher capital gains in 2026.⁹ 

Control What You Can Control

While we hope to get more legislative clarity in the next 100 days of the Trump presidency, you should focus on controlling what you can through your estate plan and aim to maintain flexibility. This includes doing things such as updating your will or trust, creating an incapacity plan, updating beneficiary designations on financial accounts and insurance policies, and talking to your attorney about ways to hedge against potential outcomes in your plan. That way, if any major policy changes that affect your finances and family do come to pass, you will be ready to make targeted adjustments. 

Maintaining flexibility and focusing on fundamentals are key during transition periods like the one we are experiencing now. For a steady and experienced hand to guide you through the transformations of Trump 2.0, reach out to our office and set up an appointment. 

1. 2025 Donald J. Trump Executive Orders, Fed. Reg.: Executive Orders,  https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-trump/2025 (last visited Apr. 21, 2025).  ↩︎
2. Natalie Sherman, Has Trump Promised Too Much on US Economy? BBC (Jan. 17, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17d41y70deo.  ↩︎
3. Preparing for the Expiration of the TCJA in 2025, Bloomberg Tax (Mar. 28, 2025), https://pro.bloombergtax.com/insights/federal-tax/what-is-the-future-of-the-tcja/#will-the-tcja-be-extended.  ↩︎
4. Alex Isenstadt, Scoop: Trump Lays Out Tax Priorities to House GOP, Axios (Feb. 6, 2025), https://www.axios.com/2025/02/06/trump-no-tax-on-tips-social-security-overtime.  ↩︎
5. Press Release, John Thune, Thune Leads Effort to Permanently Repeal the Death Tax (Feb. 13, 2025), https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2025/2/thune-leads-effort-to-permanently-repeal-the-death-tax. ↩︎
6. Kevin Frekin et al., Senate GOP Approves Framework for Trump’s Tax Breaks and Spending Cuts After Late-Night Session, AP (Apr. 5, 2025), https://apnews.com/article/senate-budget-tax-cuts-trump-485845a9c0b7dfc5d2194d4c1e4723ae.  ↩︎
7. Trump Tax Priorities Total $5 to $11 Trillion, Comm. for a Responsible Fed. Budget (Feb. 6, 2025), https://www.crfb.org/blogs/trump-tax-priorities-total-5-11-trillion.  ↩︎
8. Aimee Picchi, Trump Wants to Close the Carried Interest Tax Loophole, a Longtime Target of Democrats, CBS News (Feb. 7, 2025), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tax-taxes-carried-interest-loophole-hedge-funds.  ↩︎
9. How Did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Change Personal Taxes?, Tax Pol’y Ctr. (Jan. 2024), https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-did-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-change-personal-taxes.  ↩︎

The term estate may bring to mind mansions, vast fortunes, and a level of wealth that many people do not possess. This misconception may lead to the false impression that estate planning is only for the rich and famous, discouraging those with more modest means from seeking professional guidance.

If estate is a loaded term, then trust is even more so. Mention the word trust,and many people think of wealthy families, complex legal arrangements, and a level of sophistication that can seem intimidating or unnecessary. 

Misconceptions about trusts often stem from a lack of understanding about what a trust actually is, how it works, and situations where it can provide benefits above and beyond a will. Wills and trusts are complementary—not mutually exclusive. They can serve different roles in an estate plan and often address different concerns. 

Trust Basics

Trusts can work in various ways depending on the type of trust and how you want to pass down your assets (accounts and property). However, every trust has some things in common. 

When you transfer assets to a trust, the trust becomes the legal owner of those assets. You are, in effect, giving up direct ownership of whatever assets you place in a trust, which can include real estate, bank and financial accounts, personal property, and even things such as life insurance proceeds and business interests. 

• As the trustmaker (sometimes called the trustor, settlor, or grantor), you create the trust and decide which asset(s) to put into it. 
• A trustee (or co-trustees) manages the trust on your beneficiaries’ behalf. Depending on the type of trust you create, you might be the initial trustee. 
• Your beneficiaries receive proceeds from the trust based on instructions you leave the trustee in the trust agreement. You can give the trustee wide discretion to manage assets or prescribe very narrow parameters. Depending on the type of trust, you might also be the beneficiary while you are alive.

Although a will can also be used to name beneficiaries to receive your assets, it takes effect only after you die. A trust, on the other hand, is effective during your lifetime, which means that a successor (backup) trustee can step in to manage your assets if you become disabled or injured—not just when you pass away, as with a will. 

People create trusts for numerous reasons. Some of the most common are the following: 

• Avoiding probate. The court process known as probate imposes additional costs, delays distributions, and is part of the public record. Assets held in a trust avoid probate. They pass directly—and, in most situations, privately—to beneficiaries according to the instructions you have included in the trust agreement. 
• Reducing estate taxes. If your net worth exceeds exemption amounts for estate and inheritance taxes, certain types of trusts can help minimize your tax liability, leaving more money to benefit your loved ones. 
• Protecting assets. Trusts can shield assets from the beneficiary’s creditors, lawsuits, and potential financial mismanagement. 
• Providing for loved ones. Trusts can ensure that loved ones, such as minor children or those with special needs, are cared for according to your wishes. 
• Managing assets during incapacity. A trust allows for the seamless management of assets if you become incapacitated (unable to manage your affairs), ensuring estate plan continuity and avoiding potential court intervention. 
• Charitable giving. Trusts can be used to support charitable causes and provide associated tax benefits. 
• Incentivizing behavior. You could structure a trust to encourage beneficiaries to achieve certain goals, such as pursuing education or maintaining employment.

Demand for trusts is increasing as Americans go through the “Great Wealth Transfer” from older generations to younger family members.¹ Ultimately, the decision to create a trust reflects a desire for greater control, protection, and flexibility in managing and passing down wealth.

Trust-Based Planning Scenarios

Understanding how trusts work can help you properly visualize how a trust might fit into your own estate plan. To further illustrate the variety of roles trusts can play in achieving your legacy goals, here are some specific examples of scenarios where trusts are commonly utilized:

• You have a high net worth (specifically, a net worth exceeding the federal estate tax exemption, or state exemption levels, which are as low as $1 million in Oregon and even lower in some states that impose an inheritance tax). If these taxes affect you, consider
  • a grantor retained annuity trust—allows you to transfer assets to beneficiaries while retaining an income stream; 
  • a charitable remainder trust—provides an income stream to beneficiaries, with the remainder going to a designated charity; or 
  • a dynasty trust—passes wealth down through multiple generations.
• You want complex distribution instructions, which could involve blended families, beneficiaries with special needs, or beneficiaries who are prone to financial mismanagement or vulnerable to creditors. These scenarios may lend themselves to
  • a spendthrift trust—protects assets from creditors and prevents beneficiaries from squandering their inheritance; 
  • a supplemental needs trust—enables a disabled beneficiary to receive financial support from the trust without affecting their eligibility for means-tested government benefits;
  • an incentive trust—makes distributions to a beneficiary dependent on their meeting certain conditions, such as graduating, becoming employed, getting sober, or volunteering for charitable causes; or 
  • a qualified terminable interest property trust—provides for a surviving spouse while ensuring that the deceased spouse’s assets ultimately pass to their chosen beneficiaries when the surviving spouse dies. 
• You are exposed to unique tax liabilities related to situations such as having extensive real estate investments or business ownership. Possible trust solutions include the following:
  • a qualified personal residence trust—allows for the transfer of a primary residence or, in some circumstances, a vacation home, to a trust while retaining the right to live in it for a set period or
  • an irrevocable life insurance trust—holds a life insurance policy that uses the death benefit proceeds to cover estate taxes or provide liquidity to a business after your death.

Estate planning attorneys often emphasize that every adult, no matter their age or wealth level, needs an estate plan. It should start with a will, but depending on your financial and family situation, a trust can be a valuable addition to your plan. 

If you think a trust may be right for you and your family but are overwhelmed by the number of options and their range of uses, set up a time to talk with us about the different trust types and the benefits they offer.

1. Ronda Lee, More Americans are dealing with tax filings for trusts as older boomers pass away, Yahoo! finance (Apr. 5, 2023), https://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-americans-are-dealing-with-tax-filings-for-trusts-as-older-boomers-pass-away-211151632.html. ↩︎

Beneficiary and Transfer-on-Death Designations: Are You Doing It Right?

Do you know which of your accounts have beneficiary designations, sometimes called transfer-on-death (TOD) or payable-on-death (POD) designations? Have you updated them recently? Are you aware of what can go wrong if there are issues with your beneficiary designation forms?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it may be time to review your beneficiary, TOD, and POD designations and confirm that everything is accurate, complete, and current. 

Accounts and property with beneficiary, TOD, or POD designations take precedence over your will or living trust, so keeping forms updated is crucial to ensuring that your accounts and property go quickly and seamlessly to the right people. 

Where to Find TOD, POD, and Beneficiary Designations 

Beneficiary, TOD, and POD designations are made using legal forms that specify who will receive the asset (e.g., accounts, property, death benefits, etc.) after the original owner dies. 

Such designations allow you to pass assets directly to your beneficiaries and avoid probate. Avoiding probate can reduce estate costs, ultimately leaving more money to benefit your family and loved ones, and result in faster distribution to beneficiaries. Common asset types where beneficiary designations come into play include the following: 

• retirement accounts—401(k)s, individual retirement accounts, and other retirement plans; 
• investment accounts—Brokerage accounts, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds;
• bank accounts—Checking accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit; 
• life insurance policies—All types of life insurance policies, including whole, term, and group; and
• real estate—TOD deeds and similar alternatives (offered in more than half of states).

For most Americans, their home and financial accounts are the primary source of their wealth, making them central in an estate plan¹ and making it all the more important that beneficiary designations for these assets reflect your current wishes. 

What Can Go Wrong with an Incomplete, Inaccurate, or Outdated Beneficiary Form?

According to financial advisors, beneficiary form errors are among the most common—and the costliest—estate planning mistakes that people make.² These errors fall into a few main buckets:  

• Failure to name a beneficiary. Many people simply forget to complete beneficiary designation forms or put them off indefinitely. This situation is especially common for inherited accounts. 
• Outdated information. Major life events such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or the death of a beneficiary necessitate updating designations.
• Inaccurate or missing information. Mistakes in spelling, addresses, or other identifying information or failure to provide complete information can cause delays, confusion, or even disputes when processing beneficiary designations. 
• Naming a minor as beneficiary. Technically, minors can be named as beneficiaries, but they cannot legally receive or manage money and property above a certain value. If they are named as beneficiaries, a court may need to appoint a guardian to oversee the funds for them until they reach the age of majority (18 years of age in some states and 21 in others).
• Overlooking complex circumstances. A beneficiary may be unable to manage their inheritance because of a disability, special needs, poor money habits, mental health issues, or substance use disorder. 
• Not naming contingent beneficiaries. If the primary beneficiary dies before the account holder or cannot be located and no contingent (backup) beneficiary has been named, it will be treated as if no beneficiary had been named.
• Lost or invalid forms. Unfortunately, financial institutions sometimes misplace beneficiary designation forms or fail to process them correctly. Also, if a financial institution or employer changes the plan’s service provider or administrator, the original beneficiary designation may no longer apply, meaning that a new beneficiary designation form needs to be completed under the new provider. 

In addition to the unintended distribution of accounts, property, or death benefits and related disputes, an invalid, missing, or outdated beneficiary designation can result in the assets requiring probate administration, possibly causing payout delays and raising estate administration costs. Also, most things that go through probate may be subject to claims from creditors, potentially reducing the amount distributed to beneficiaries. 

To emphasize how disastrous beneficiary form errors can be to an estate plan, here are some examples of how they could play out in the real world: 

• Divorce dilemma. John and Mary were married for 20 years. John had a 401(k) from his employer, with Mary listed as the sole beneficiary. They divorced, and John remarried. John passed away unexpectedly, and despite his wishes for his current wife to inherit his retirement funds, the plan administrator, bound by the beneficiary designation, paid the entire sum to his ex-wife. Not all states have revocation-upon-divorce laws, and even in states that do, there are often exceptions and specific situations where the rules do not apply.
• Forgotten children. Sarah had a life insurance policy from her early 20s naming her parents as beneficiaries. She later had two children but never updated the policy. Upon Sarah’s death, the life insurance proceeds went to her parents.
• Probate purgatory. Robert had a brokerage account but never designated a beneficiary. When he died, the account became part of his probate estate, resulting in a lengthy and expensive legal process that delayed the distribution of his money and property to his heirs. Because the assets were tied up in probate, creditors also had easier access to those funds. 
• Incapacitated beneficiary. A woman named her adult son as her sole beneficiary on her life insurance policy. Years later, her son was in a severe car accident and became mentally incapacitated. When the woman passed, there was no clear plan for how the life insurance funds should be managed for her incapacitated son, and if he was receiving needs-based benefits, those benefits could be jeopardized by his receiving the funds. 

Schedule an Estate Plan Review

A recent survey found that nearly one-fourth of Americans have not revised their estate plan since creating it. Many have also not updated it within the past 10 to 15 years.³ 

The recommended timeline for reviewing beneficiary designations is the same as for the rest of your estate plan—at least every few years or after any significant life event. During the review process, you and your attorney can dig into details such as the following: 

• Are these beneficiaries still the people you want to receive your accounts?
• Are the beneficiaries still living? 
• Are they capable of managing the inheritance? 
• Is there more than one beneficiary named, and if so, how hard is it to divide the account or property, and what is the potential for conflict between/among the beneficiaries? 
• Have you informed the beneficiaries that they are named? Do they know how to claim their inheritance? 
• Are you fine with them receiving an outright distribution, or are safeguards needed? 

When reviewing beneficiary designations, get current confirmation directly from the financial institutions to verify whom they have on record. Do not just rely on the forms you originally filled out to ensure your designations were properly processed.

Even if everything looks good after a review, for added protection and control over the inheritance in complex circumstances, you may want to name a trust as the beneficiary and allow a trustee to manage the inheritance on your loved ones’ behalf. You can also name a charity as a beneficiary. 

Avoid letting a simple clerical error derail your estate plan. Schedule an attorney review to double-check that every “i” is dotted, every “t” is crossed, and every form accurately expresses your intentions.

1. Rakesh Kochhar and Mohamad Moslimani, 4. The assets households own and the debts they carry, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Dec. 4, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/2023/12/04/the-assets-households-own-and-the-debts-they-carry. ↩︎
2. Mark Henricks, Out-of-date beneficiary designations are a common and costly mistake, CNBC (Apr. 17, 2018), https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/out-of-date-beneficiary-designations-are-a-common-and-costly-mistake.html. ↩︎
3. Victoria Lurie, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, Caring (Feb. 18, 2025), https://www.caring.com/caregivers/estate-planning/wills-survey. ↩︎

Is Outright Distribution the Perfect Fit for Your Loved Ones?

Although Americans are living longer and spending more time—and money—in retirement, many parents intend to leave an inheritance to their children. The exact amount can vary greatly depending on individual circumstances and wealth levels, but even a small inheritance can be meaningful and help set a child up for long-term financial success, provided they are ready to handle it, which may not be the case. 

Most families fail to discuss wealth transfers to ensure that younger generations are prepared for an inheritance. Parents need to decide how they want to pass their assets (accounts and property) to their children and other beneficiaries so they can plan the transfer in a way that fits their goals and their loved ones’ abilities to manage their inheritance. The wealth transfer process includes deciding whether to leave a loved one an outright inheritance or to pass their wealth down in a more controlled manner. 

Pros and Cons of an Outright Inheritance

Over the next 20 years, an estimated $84 trillion in assets is expected to change hands from older Americans to younger Americans in what financial experts are calling the “Great Wealth Transfer.”¹  

According to a USA Today survey, about 76 percent of Americans receiving an inheritance say they plan to save or invest it, 40 percent say they will use it to pay off debt, and 21 percent want to leave the money to their children.² 

Another survey found that, among those expecting to receive an inheritance, 50 percent consider it “highly critical” or “critical” to their long-term financial security and retirement.³ 

The most straightforward way to transfer wealth is by outright distribution. An outright distribution is fast and simple, and there are typically no fees associated with it. There are also no strings attached. When a beneficiary receives an outright distribution, they are free to use, sell, or manage the money and property however they want, with no conditions, restrictions, or oversight. 

However, an outright inheritance may not be in the beneficiaries’ best interest. For someone unprepared to handle an inheritance, not only could the money fail to solve their financial problems, but it could also worsen them or lead to new ones.

In spite of their best intentions to budget, invest, and responsibly spend an inheritance, your loved ones could just as easily squander it on impulse purchases, risky investments, or financial scams. 

More than a quarter of respondents admitted to USA Today that they plan to use their inheritance for travel or luxury spending.⁴ Many (72 percent), according to a Citizens Bank survey, also admit that they are unprepared to manage an inheritance.⁵ 

One downside of an outright distribution is that if a beneficiary has debt, something many young people struggle with, a creditor might be able to make a claim against the beneficiary and take their inheritance even before they can benefit from it. 

Certain beneficiaries may not be legally able to receive an outright distribution. If the recipient is a minor child, for example, or is incapacitated (unable to manage their affairs) and does not have an agent under a financial power of attorney, a court-appointed conservator may be necessary to receive and manage their inheritance for them.

Alternatives to Outright Distribution

None of this is to say that outright distributions are inherently bad. Deciding whether to leave an outright inheritance to a beneficiary depends heavily on their personal situation. Even within the same family, children can have wildly different financial aptitudes and attitudes. Some are perfectly capable of managing their inheritance. Others struggle to plan and save for the future. 

There can also be a gap between what children plan to do and what they end up doing. Parents may sometimes need to protect their children from their own bad habits. 

No matter how much you plan to leave to a beneficiary, it can be a source of pride and fulfillment to know you are making a difference in their life. A Northwestern Mutual survey found that, among those expecting to leave an inheritance, more than two-thirds (68 percent) said it is their “single most important financial goal” or is “very important.”⁶ 

However, leaving an inheritance can also be a source of trepidation. Six in 10 parents told Northwestern Mutual that their children do not value financial responsibility the same way they do, with more than half expressing concerns that this difference in values could negatively impact the family’s assets when they pass from one generation to the next.⁷ And only about a quarter of adults feel prepared for, and confident in, the wealth transfer process, Edward Jones research found.⁸ 

When deciding what method of distribution is best for your child, it helps to know their current financial situation and their short- and long-term financial goals, such as paying down debt, buying a home, giving to charity, and saving for education. This knowledge starts with a family discussion about wealth transfers. We would love to be part of the conversation and answer any questions you and your family have about inheritance-related matters, such as taxes, ways to invest and budget an inheritance, and estate planning after an inheritance.

1. Julie Sherrier et al., Study: Gen Z and millennials plan to use inheritances to invest, pay off debt, USA Today (June 6, 2024), https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/study-great-wealth-transfer-plans. ↩︎
2. Id. ↩︎
3. As $90 Trillion “Great Wealth Transfer” Approaches, Just 1 in 4 American Expect to Leave an Inheritance, Northwestern Mutual (Aug. 6, 2024), https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2024-08-06-As-90-Trillion-Great-Wealth-Transfer-Approaches,-Just-1-in-4-Americans-Expect-to-Leave-an-Inheritance. ↩︎
4. Julie Sherrier et al., Study: Gen Z and millennials plan to use inheritances to invest, pay off debt, USA Today (June 6, 2024), https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/credit-cards/study-great-wealth-transfer-plans. ↩︎
5. Most Americans aren’t ready for the ‘Great Wealth Transfer,’ Citizens, https://www.citizensbank.com/learning/great-wealth-transfer-survey.aspx (last visited Mar. 21, 2025). ↩︎
6. Northwestern Mutual, supra n. 3, https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2024-08-06-As-90-Trillion-Great-Wealth-Transfer-Approaches,-Just-1-in-4-Americans-Expect-to-Leave-an-Inheritance. ↩︎
7. Id. ↩︎
8. The Great Wealth Transfer Starts with the Great Wealth Talk, Edward Jones Research Finds, Edward Jones (Feb. 27, 2024), https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/why-edward-jones/news-media/press-releases/great-wealth-transfer-research. ↩︎