It is so easy to name pay on death beneficiaries on your checking and savings accounts! Beware of estate planning techniques that are easy for you to set up. Estate planning techniques that are easy for you to set up are probably not going to accomplish very much. Texas and New Mexico laws allow you to name someone to receive the cash from your checking and savings account upon your death. NM 45-6-223 (1992). Tex. Estates Section 113.004 (2015). These are called pay on death beneficiaries. You probably don’t think of naming a beneficiary on your account as “estate planning.” Anytime you make a decision to leave what you have to whom you want upon your death, you are planning your estate. Estate planning attorneys have had at least seven years of education to receive an undergraduate degree and a juris doctor before advising you of the strategies and consequences of estate planning. The individual helping you to set up your checking and savings account is probably not an estate planning attorney. This blog focuses on two big problems with pay on death beneficiaries.

Click to continue reading more about what these two big problems are.

***NOTHING IN THIS ARTICLE IS TO BE CONSIDERED AS THE RENDERING OF LEGAL ADVICE FOR SPECIFIC CASES, OR CREATING AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP, AND READERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OBTAINING SUCH ADVICE FROM THEIR OWN LEGAL COUNSEL. THIS ARTICLE IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL AND INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION IS MADE AS TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.***

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