Who Did You Designate As Your Beneficiary?

Planning for your kids, your health, and your finances are important. It’s one of the most important things you can do while you have the capacity to do it. In fact, it is crucial to plan for what happens if you die as well as if you become incapacitated. You should also make sure your loved ones have done the same. An elderly family member can be taken advantage of because they are losing their mental capacity and they didn’t choose a trustworthy person to manage their affairs. One common scenario of financial elder abuse involves using beneficiary designations to take control of assets.

At the time that they are most vulnerable and need to be taken care of, there are predators that get themselves appointed as the beneficiary of an elderly person’s pension, life insurance, or bank accounts. Often, the true beneficiaries and close family members do not find out about it until it’s too late. At that point, their choices are either to walk away from their rightful inheritance, which is hard to do, or file a lawsuit. The emotional turmoil can be overwhelming.

Therefore, get your paperwork in order and see to it that your estate plan is done right, including a power of attorney, beneficiary designations, and other documents. Let not some error, or oversight, or worse unscrupulous person take from you, what rightfully is yours. Let’s get that done. Give us a call if you have any questions or if we can help @516-570-4016.