Should You Name Both Children as Trustees? Here’s What to Consider.

You come to the line that asks for a trustee’s name, and you pause. You have two children. Both matter deeply to you, and you don’t want either one to feel passed over. Why not simply name them both?

That instinct comes from love. But choosing a trustee should never feel like ranking your children.

A trustee is the person or institution who manages your trust when you no longer can. At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we look beyond the names on the page. We consider your family relationships, what you own, and what you want your legacy to make possible. Then we ask a simple question: what does this job require, and who is ready to do it?

Your children can receive equal inheritances without holding equal responsibilities. They can also serve together well, when the arrangement fits them and the rules are clear.

This week is National Estate Planning Awareness Week, a timely reminder to ask not only whether you have a trust, but whether the people you’ve chosen are still the right fit.

Choosing a Trustee Is About the Job, Not Birth Order

Here we’re talking about your successor trustee: the person who steps in when you can no longer serve, or after your death.

That person will need to:

• Understand and follow the trust’s instructions
• Locate and protect the trust’s assets
• Keep careful records
• Keep your beneficiaries informed
• Coordinate property, investments, and tax filings when needed

Under the Florida Trust Code, a trustee is a fiduciary. That means they must manage the trust for the beneficiaries, not for their own convenience. Florida law also requires a trustee to treat beneficiaries impartially and to keep them reasonably informed. Within 60 days of accepting the role, for example, a trustee must notify the trust’s qualified beneficiaries.

In other words, this is real work, not an honorary title.

Your oldest child isn’t automatically the best fit. Neither is the one with the biggest career or the one who lives closest to Naples. What matters more is whether they follow through, stay calm in disagreement, and ask for professional help when they need it.

A few questions to consider:

• Does this person have time to respond to requests and keep records?
• Can they explain a decision without becoming defensive?
• Will they follow your wishes, even when another relative disagrees?
• Are they willing to work with legal, tax, and financial professionals?
• Can they reasonably reach the property and records if needed?

Someone who loves you can still say no to this role, and Florida law allows a named trustee to decline. Ask before you name them. A willing backup is far more helpful than a first choice who feels obligated.

The bottom line: Choose a trustee for the responsibilities involved, not as a reward for being your child.

Two Names Don’t Automatically Mean Two Sets of Helping Hands

You might picture one child handling the finances while the other looks after the house. That can work, but it has to fit your trust’s terms and Florida law. An informal agreement to split the work doesn’t remove either person’s legal duties.

It helps to know the difference:

• Co-trustees serve together, at the same time.
• A successor trustee takes over when the conditions in your trust are met.

Naming your daughter first and your son as her backup is a very different arrangement from naming them both to act at once.

If they will serve together, ask how decisions will be made. Must both agree? Can either one handle routine matters? What happens if one is traveling or ill?

In Florida, co-trustees who can’t agree may generally act by majority decision, unless the trust says otherwise. With two co-trustees split one to one, though, there is no majority. That kind of deadlock can stall decisions, and in some cases it may end up in front of a judge.

Imagine a $12,000 repair needed before a trust-owned home in Naples can be sold. One child wants to approve it right away. The other wants a second estimate. Neither is being unreasonable. But without a clear way to decide, a routine expense can become a family argument while the home keeps costing money.

Thoughtful planning can prevent that. Your trust can spell out who decides what, how disagreements are resolved, and whether a neutral tiebreaker steps in.

The bottom line: If your children will serve together, your plan needs clear rules for cooperation, absence, and disagreement.

Equal Love Doesn’t Require Identical Roles

Picture your children after you’re gone. One is responsible for following the trust’s distribution instructions. The other is asking when money will be available. Their relationship now carries a financial weight it didn’t have before.

That doesn’t mean a child should never serve as trustee. It means the pressure deserves an honest look, and your family’s history doesn’t disappear because everyone signs a form.

We would much rather help you talk through that now than leave your children to sort it out while they grieve.

Several arrangements are worth considering:

• One child serves, with the other named as successor
• Both children serve together under clear decision-making rules
• An independent person or professional trustee serves
• A family member and a professional share the role under a carefully designed plan

None is automatically right. A professional trustee charges fees and has its own acceptance requirements. Under Florida law, any trustee is generally entitled to reasonable compensation unless your trust says otherwise. A family member brings personal knowledge but may need outside support.

The bottom line: Giving your children different responsibilities can be an act of care, not a statement that you love one more.

Give the Person You Choose a Real Starting Point

Suppose you choose the right person but never tell them. They learn their role after a hospital stay, along with accounts they can’t identify and instructions they’ve never read.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Authority isn’t automatic. Your trust determines when your successor steps in and what must happen first.
• The trust doesn’t cover everything. Your trustee manages only what the trust owns. Other assets may need a personal representative, an agent under a power of attorney, or a named beneficiary.
• A starting point matters. Keep a secure record of where your trust, asset information, and advisor contacts are kept.

You don’t need to give everyone access to every account. But the right people should know whom to call and where to find what they’re authorized to see.

It also helps to share the why behind your choices. “I chose your sister because she agreed to handle the administration, and I arranged professional support” lands very differently than leaving your children to guess.

The bottom line: Your choice works best when the person understands the role, knows when their authority begins, and can find the right help.

A Good Choice Today Still Deserves Another Look

Your child may be an excellent choice today and need to step aside later. A move, an illness, a demanding career, or a change in family relationships can all affect what they’re able to take on. Florida law does allow a trustee to resign, but it’s far smoother when your plan already names a willing backup.

Review your backups as carefully as your first choice.

An ongoing Personal Family Lawyer® relationship gives you a place to revisit these decisions as life changes. And when your family needs guidance, they’ll have someone who already knows your plan and the reasons behind it.

The bottom line: Keeping your decision-makers prepared is part of caring for your family, not a task that ends when the trust is signed.

Life & Legacy Planning® Session: What You Can Do Right Now

Ask each person you’re considering whether they’d be willing to serve. Then write down one concern you have about the arrangement. Bring those answers, and your current documents, to a planning conversation.

Please don’t add a second trustee just to avoid an uncomfortable conversation.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we help families in Naples, Stuart, and surrounding communities create Life & Legacy Plans that reflect their unique circumstances. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all planning. Together, we’ll consider who should serve, what support they’ll need, and how your choices fit the rest of your plan.

Our relationship doesn’t end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family will know to call us.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation at flwillsandtrustslaw.com/schedule-consultation, or call 239-331-7977.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We help you make informed decisions about life and death for yourself and the people you love. Our Life & Legacy Planning® Session helps you get financially organized, understand your options, and create a plan that reflects your family’s needs.

The content is adapted from Personal Family Lawyer for use by member firms. This material is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. Advice specific to your circumstances requires a separate professional engagement.

© 2026 Personal Family Lawyer, all rights reserved. Licensed for use by member firms.

Second Marriage? Here’s How to Plan for Your Spouse and Your Children.

A second marriage can bring companionship, new traditions, and a meaningful new chapter. It can also bring together children, established assets, and different expectations about the future.

You may want your spouse to maintain a comfortable lifestyle while preserving an inheritance for your children. Perhaps you also want to include stepchildren or grandchildren.

The question is how to turn those intentions into arrangements your family can rely on.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we begin with your priorities. What does financial security mean for your spouse? What do you want your children to receive, and when?

Defining those wishes helps us build a plan that reflects your relationships, resources, and values.

Second Marriage Estate Planning Has to Keep Two Promises

Providing for your spouse and leaving an inheritance to your children are related goals, but they are not the same instruction.

If your spouse inherits assets outright, those assets generally become your spouse’s property. Your spouse may spend them or leave the remaining assets to different beneficiaries. Matching wills alone do not necessarily prevent that outcome.

A long retirement, care expenses, or remarriage can change the financial picture without anyone intending to disappoint your children.

Consider a hypothetical family with $800,000 intended to support a surviving spouse and eventually benefit two adult children. If the same assets must cover decades of living expenses, the children’s inheritance may be smaller than anticipated.

Florida’s default inheritance rules may also differ from your expectations. If you die without a valid will and leave a descendant who is not also your spouse’s descendant, your spouse generally receives half of your intestate estate. A half-share can also apply when all your descendants are shared but your spouse has an additional descendant from another relationship. These rules govern assets passing through intestate succession.

The bottom line: Your plan should distinguish your spouse’s financial support from the inheritance you intend for your children.

You Can Define Support Without Making Love a Loyalty Test

A carefully designed trust can provide for your spouse during their lifetime and direct the remaining assets to your children afterward.

Its terms determine whether your spouse receives income, when principal may be used, and who inherits what remains.

However, protecting the identity of the eventual beneficiaries does not guarantee the amount they will receive. Permitted spending for your spouse’s needs can reduce the remaining inheritance.

You might make the entire $800,000 available for specified spousal needs. Alternatively, you might reserve a portion for your children at your death and use the balance for your spouse.

Life insurance may also provide a separate source of inheritance when appropriately coordinated with the plan.

Florida’s elective-share law needs particular attention. Unless validly waived, a surviving spouse generally has the right to claim 30% of the elective estate. That calculation can include certain assets outside probate, including assets held in a revocable trust. A trust does not automatically avoid this protection.

Joint and separate trusts also require careful review of who can change beneficiaries after your death.

The bottom line: Your plan should balance flexibility for your spouse with clear protections for your children’s intended inheritance.

Your Home Needs an Answer Beyond “They Can Stay”

Your home may represent both a substantial asset and your spouse’s sense of security.

If your spouse will remain there and your children are intended to inherit later, the arrangement needs to address practical questions:

• Who pays the mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and repairs?
• What happens if your spouse wants to downsize or needs residential care?
• Can the property be sold, and what happens to the proceeds?
• When does the right to occupy the home end?

A $24,000 roof replacement can quickly expose the limits of an instruction that says only “my spouse may stay.”

Florida’s homestead rules add another layer. Generally, qualifying homestead cannot be left by will or trust to someone else when the owner leaves a spouse or minor child. If there is a spouse but no minor child, it may be left outright to the spouse. Valid waivers and ownership arrangements may affect the analysis.

A primary Florida residence may therefore require different planning from a vacation home or property in another state.

The bottom line: Your housing wishes must work within Florida law and address the expenses and decisions that come with maintaining a home.

Do Not Make Your Family Negotiate What You Meant

When your spouse benefits from a trust during life and your children inherit afterward, they may have different priorities for the same assets.

The trustee must manage those interests while following the trust’s instructions and applicable law.

A family member may be an appropriate choice. In other circumstances, an independent individual or professional trustee may offer helpful continuity and reduce personal strain.

Consider whether a child would feel comfortable evaluating your spouse’s financial requests—and whether your spouse would feel comfortable making them.

Your beneficiary designations also need review. Some employer retirement plans require your spouse’s consent before another beneficiary can be named. Naming a trust as beneficiary requires additional attention to tax consequences.

Your investment accounts, insurance policies, property ownership, and any marital agreement or divorce obligations should support the same intended outcome.

Explaining the purpose of your choices can also help. Your family may not need every financial detail to understand that their needs were considered.

The bottom line: Thoughtful trustee selection, coordinated assets, and clear communication can reduce uncertainty for your spouse and children.

The Relationship Helps Keep Both Promises in View

An estate plan should remain connected to the life it serves.

Retirement, relocation, changes in health, or significant changes in wealth can affect the balance between your spouse’s needs and your children’s inheritance.

An ongoing Personal Family Lawyer® relationship provides an opportunity to revisit those decisions and coordinate with your other advisors.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we help you consider how changes in your circumstances affect your plan. Familiarity with your intentions can also help your family understand the next legal steps after your death. Assistance carrying out those steps would be addressed through a separate engagement.

The bottom line: Ongoing stewardship helps keep your estate plan aligned with your family, resources, and values.

Life & Legacy Planning® Session: What You Can Do Right Now

Begin with two sentences:

“I want my spouse to have…”

“I want my children to receive…”

Consider housing, income, timing, and any assets or amounts you want reserved. Bring those priorities, your existing documents, and your account information to a planning conversation before making changes.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we help families in Naples, Stuart, and surrounding communities create Life & Legacy Plans that reflect their individual circumstances.

During your Life & Legacy Planning® Session, we’ll explore your options for providing for your spouse while preserving the legacy you intend for your children.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation at flwillsandtrustslaw.com/schedule-consultation, or call 239-331-7977.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We help you make informed decisions about life and death for yourself and the people you love. Our Life & Legacy Planning® Session helps you get financially organized, understand your options, and create a plan that reflects your family’s needs.

The content is adapted from Personal Family Lawyer for use by member firms. This material is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. Advice specific to your circumstances requires a separate professional engagement.

© 2026 Personal Family Lawyer, all rights reserved. Licensed for use by member firms.

Your Passwords Are Not Your Plan: Protecting Your Digital Life

Imagine your spouse or adult child trying to pay an insurance bill while you are in the hospital. They know the payment is due, but they cannot find the account, access your email, or receive the security code sent to your phone.

Even a carefully organized household can encounter this problem.

So much of daily life now happens online. Banking, insurance, tax records, investment statements, and family photographs may all sit behind separate logins.

Planning for online accounts during incapacity means preparing for a time when you are alive but unable to manage those accounts yourself. October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a helpful reminder to make sure your digital life is included in your estate planning conversations.

Start With the Accounts Your Family Would Need First

You do not need to list every website you have ever visited. Begin with the accounts that keep your household running or hold something important.

These may include:

• Email accounts used for bills and account recovery.
• Banking, investment, and retirement account portals.
• Mortgage, utility, and insurance accounts.
• Cloud storage containing tax records and legal documents.
• Family photographs and videos.
• Business accounts and income-producing online services.

For families managing multiple properties or accounts across different institutions, a clear inventory can be especially valuable.

Record where each account is held, why it matters, and where protected access instructions can be found.

What to remember: Your family needs to know what exists before they can determine how to handle it.

A Password Is Not the Same as Legal Authority

“My spouse knows my passwords” sounds reassuring. But it does not answer every question about who may manage an account.

Florida’s Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act addresses access by people serving in legal roles, including agents under powers of attorney. For disclosure of the contents of electronic communications, such as private emails, the law requires express authority in the power of attorney, subject to the account holder’s directions and court orders. Providers also have documentation requirements.

In everyday terms, your planning documents should address the digital information your chosen person may need. A password list alone cannot accomplish that.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we can review how your online accounts fit into your broader Florida estate plan.

What to remember: Your practical access arrangements and legal documents should work together.

Your Account Settings Matter, Too

Some providers offer tools that let you choose who may receive certain information.

Under Florida law, qualifying online-tool directions that you can change or delete at any time can override conflicting instructions in a will, trust, or power of attorney. Review those choices when reviewing your estate plan.

Also, understand when each tool applies.

Apple’s Legacy Contact feature, for example, provides access to certain information after death. It does not provide access to passwords, passkeys, or payment information stored in iCloud Keychain. It therefore does not resolve every access need—or serve as an incapacity plan.

What to remember: Check what each provider’s tool covers, when it works, and whom you have selected.

Keep Sensitive Information Secure

Do not include passwords, recovery codes, or security answers in your will. A will may become part of a court record after death.

Instead, maintain a separate, protected system for sensitive information. Depending on your circumstances, that might include a password manager with an appropriate emergency-access feature or another secure storage method.

Your inventory should also identify accounts that require a phone, device, or additional security step. Avoid weakening account security simply to make future access easier.

Tell the appropriate trusted person where your inventory is kept and how to begin the authorized access process.

What to remember: Make important information findable while keeping it protected.

Begin With Five Important Accounts

Digital planning can feel like an endless project. Start small.

Choose the five accounts that would cause the greatest difficulty if you could no longer manage them. Record their purpose, identify available provider tools, and note questions to discuss with your attorney.

Review the information when you change providers, replace devices, or choose different people to help with your affairs.

The goal is to give your loved ones a useful starting point during an already stressful time.

What to remember: A manageable first step is better than a perfect plan that never gets started.

Your Life & Legacy Planning® Session: Take the Next Step

Your digital life deserves the same thoughtful attention as your home, finances, and family responsibilities.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we help families in Naples, Stuart, and the surrounding communities create estate plans that reflect their circumstances and wishes. During your Life & Legacy Planning® Session, we can discuss how your online accounts, chosen decision-makers, and legal documents fit together.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation by calling 239-331-7977 or visiting flwillsandtrustslaw.com/schedule-consultation.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We help you make informed decisions about your future and the people you love through our Life & Legacy Planning® process.

Adapted from content provided by Personal Family Lawyer. This material is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. Advice specific to your circumstances requires a separate professional engagement.

© 2026 Personal Family Lawyer, all rights reserved. Licensed for use by member firms.

You bought the policy because someone depends on you. That was an act of care, even if it felt like one more form to finish between work, dinner, and everything else.

Now you have a trust, and a question: should your life insurance beneficiary still be your spouse?

When I review this with you, I do not start by crossing out a name. I start with what you want the money to make possible.

Time to grieve without rushing back to work? Support for your children? A home your spouse can afford to keep?

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. It is a good reminder for Florida families to look beyond the amount of coverage and ask who would receive it, who would manage it, and what happens next. A Florida beneficiary designation also deserves a fresh look if the backup recipient is a minor child.

Here are the three decisions we will work through:

• Whether your spouse should receive the money directly or through a trust.
• What should happen if your first-choice beneficiary cannot receive it.
• How the beneficiary form connects with your legal plan and your family’s other resources.

Your Life Insurance Beneficiary Needs a Job, Not Just a Name

Naming your spouse directly can be a sensible choice. If the claim is payable to your spouse, they generally receive the proceeds in their own name and decide how to use them. They do not have to request distributions from a trustee.

That freedom matters. You might want your spouse to pay bills, take leave from work, or move closer to family without asking anyone’s permission.

But it also creates a practical follow-through question. If you want the proceeds ultimately governed by your trust, your spouse must later transfer money they received individually into the trust. That may be straightforward while they are able, but it requires someone to remember to make the transfer and have the necessary authority if your spouse is incapacitated. If it never happens, the proceeds remain outside your trust. After your spouse’s death, what remains may pass under their own beneficiary designations or estate plan, or may require probate if no other arrangement controls it.

But freedom and instructions are different things.

Imagine a $1 million policy intended to support your spouse and eventually help your two children. If your spouse receives the entire benefit outright, a private understanding that “whatever is left goes to the kids” is not the same as an enforceable trust arrangement. Your spouse’s later decisions, estate plan, and circumstances affect what remains and who receives it.

This is not an accusation that your spouse will make bad choices. You are deciding whether the gift is theirs to use freely or whether some purposes need a legal structure.

That distinction deserves special attention in a blended family, where one or both spouses have children from an earlier relationship. You can love your spouse, trust their judgment, and still want a plan that addresses both their support and your children’s inheritance.

I would also ask what your spouse already owns and receives elsewhere. Your policy should not be planned as though it is your family’s only asset.

The bottom line: Naming your spouse directly gives them control. Choose that deliberately, with a clear understanding of which wishes would remain wishes rather than binding instructions.

A Trust Can Support Your Spouse Without Handing Over Every Decision

If you name a properly identified trust as beneficiary, its trustee receives and administers the proceeds under the trust’s terms. Florida law also recognizes designations to a trustee; the trust and insurer’s beneficiary form still need to line up. Your spouse might still be the person the money supports. The difference is the framework around that support.

For example, your trust could provide for your spouse during their lifetime and direct what remains to your children afterward. Or it could hold funds for younger children, with a trustee paying for their care and education instead of giving them a lump sum at adulthood.

Neither result happens merely because the beneficiary form contains the word “trust.” The document must actually provide for the result you want.

We need to look at practical questions, too:

• Who will serve as trustee, and who steps in if that person cannot serve?
• What access will your spouse have to money for ordinary expenses?
• How much discretion will the trustee have when needs change?
• What administration, recordkeeping, and costs will the arrangement require?

A trust that sounds protective on paper can become frustrating if your spouse cannot readily obtain money for the purposes you intended. Conversely, unrestricted withdrawal rights can undermine protections you thought you were creating.

Creditor protection is not automatic. It depends on the trust’s terms, applicable law, and the beneficiary’s control. Florida law generally protects proceeds paid to a designated beneficiary from the insured’s creditors, subject to the statute’s terms. That is different from promising protection against every claim involving the beneficiary; “direct payment has no protection” is an inaccurate shortcut.

The choice is not between loving your spouse and protecting your children. It is about designing an arrangement that reflects both relationships, with tradeoffs you understand.

The bottom line: A trust is useful when its terms solve a real family need. Naming one without reviewing those terms is not a substitute for planning.

Your Backup Beneficiary Deserves More Than a Quick Click

Your primary beneficiary is first in line. A contingent beneficiary is the backup if the primary beneficiary cannot receive the benefit under the policy.

Suppose you name your spouse first and your two young children second. That looks complete, but it leaves another question: who could legally receive and manage the children’s shares?

A large benefit payable to a minor child needs a plan for who may receive and manage it. Under Florida law, natural guardians may manage life insurance proceeds for a child without appointment, authority, or bond if the aggregate received does not exceed $15,000; larger amounts may require a guardian of the property or another appropriate arrangement. The NAIC identifies a trust as one option for managing proceeds for children.

Naming another adult instead, with an informal promise to use the money for your children, creates a different problem. That person is the named recipient. A promise over dinner does not create the same duties and safeguards as a properly designed trust.

If your child receives means-tested benefits, we need an additional review before directing money to them. The right planning depends on the benefits involved and the structure receiving the funds.

And your backup choices need updating as life changes. A Florida child turning 18 may be legally an adult, but that does not automatically mean a direct lump sum is the best fit. A trustee you chose ten years ago might no longer be available.

The bottom line: Review the second name on the form as carefully as the first. Your backup plan needs someone legally able to receive the money and manage it as you intend.

Changing the Beneficiary Is Not the Same as Changing the Whole Plan

Your policy owner and your beneficiary have different roles. The owner holds contractual rights, such as the ability to change a revocable beneficiary designation. The beneficiary receives the death benefit when it becomes payable.

Naming your existing living trust as beneficiary does not, by itself, move the policy outside your taxable estate. Federal estate-tax rules consider rights such as the power to change a beneficiary, among other factors. A separately designed irrevocable life insurance trust involves different decisions and should not be confused with typing your living trust’s name on a form.

There is another distinction worth keeping straight: income tax and estate tax are not the same. The IRS says death benefits are generally excluded from a beneficiary’s gross income, although exceptions apply and interest paid on proceeds is taxable.

You do not need to master those rules before asking for help. You do need someone to notice which questions apply to you.

Before changing a designation, I review the policy information alongside your trust and work with your insurance and tax professionals as appropriate. We check the exact trust identification, beneficiary percentages, backup choices, and the insurer’s requirements. We also confirm that the intended designation has been accepted rather than assuming a saved draft completed the change.

The bottom line: A beneficiary update is one part of a coordinated plan, not a stand-alone tax strategy.

The Relationship Connects the Form to the Family

Through an ongoing Personal Family Lawyer® firm relationship, I help you connect the policy with your family’s needs before a claim ever arises. That includes revisiting the choices when you remarry, welcome a child, change trustees, or decide your wealth should serve a different purpose.

It also matters later. When your family needs to administer the plan, an ongoing relationship means they have someone to contact who already understands its legal structure and your intentions. Your insurance professional handles the insurance questions; I help your family understand how the legal pieces fit.

The bottom line: Your policy provides a resource. An ongoing planning relationship helps keep that resource connected to the people and purposes it was meant to support.

Life & Legacy Planning® Session: What You Can Do Right Now

Gather your current beneficiary confirmation, policy summary, and trust. Then write down one sentence: “I want this money to make it possible for my family to ______.”

Bring that sentence to our conversation. Do not change your beneficiaries just because a trust sounds more protective or a direct payment sounds easier.

As a Personal Family Lawyer firm, I help you create a Life & Legacy Plan tailored to your people, your resources, and your values. I do not do one-size-fits-all planning. Together, we can decide what belongs outright, what needs a structure, and how your choices fit the rest of your life.

The relationship doesn’t end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows to call me.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute call: flwillsandtrustslaw.com/schedule-consultation

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.

© 2026 Personal Family Lawyer, all rights reserved. Licensed for use by member firms.

Days Apart, Two Estates: Who Inherits First?

Most married couples plan with one central assumption: one spouse will survive and continue caring for the family.

But what if neither spouse is able to do so?

When spouses die at the same time or only days apart, three questions become critical:

• Who is considered to have inherited first?
• Did that person satisfy any required survival period?
• Who inherits if they did not?

The 2025 deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, illustrate why the issue deserves attention. Authorities concluded that she died before he did, with their deaths occurring days apart. Their story is a sobering reminder that spouses do not always have years between their deaths to revisit an estate plan. (Source: Associated Press)

For Florida families, a difference of hours or days can affect which documents and asset-transfer rules apply. At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we address those questions in advance, coordinating the legal plan with the family, assets, and legacy it is intended to protect.

When Spouses Die Close Together, Which Estate Plan Controls?

If most of your property is intended for your spouse, you likely imagine your spouse benefiting from it for years. Now consider a different scenario: your spouse survives you by only two days. Who receives the property after the second death?

Suppose your will leaves property to your spouse, and your spouse’s will leaves their estate to children from a prior relationship. Whether your spouse inherited from you can change which family ultimately receives that property.

It can also affect estate administration. Property passing through both estates may require administration twice. However, two deaths do not automatically create two probate proceedings for every asset. Trust assets, jointly owned property, and assets with valid beneficiary designations may follow their own rules.

This question is particularly significant for blended families and for couples with separate property. A well-designed plan can provide for a spouse without losing sight of the legacy each spouse intends for children or other beneficiaries.

The bottom line: When deaths occur close together, the order of death can change which instructions govern and who ultimately inherits.

What a Survivorship Provision Accomplishes

A survivorship provision requires a beneficiary to live for a stated period after you before receiving an inheritance. A plan might require a spouse to survive by 30 days, for example.

If the spouse does not survive for that period, the document may treat the spouse as having died first for purposes of that inheritance. The property then passes under the plan’s contingent instructions.

In a two-day scenario, a properly drafted 30-day provision could prevent the affected inheritance from first entering the spouse’s estate. That may reduce unnecessary transfers and help preserve the intended distribution. But the provision is only complete when the plan also names the correct contingent beneficiaries.

The provision in a will or trust does not automatically control every asset. Insurance policies, retirement accounts, deeds, bank accounts, and other contracts must be reviewed separately and coordinated with the broader plan.

The bottom line: A survivorship provision can simplify administration and protect the intended legacy, but only when it is coordinated with the assets it is meant to govern.

Florida’s Simultaneous Death Law Is Not a Blanket Five-Day Rule

This distinction matters: Florida does not apply a universal 120-hour—or five-day—survival rule to every inheritance.

Florida’s Simultaneous Death Law, Fla. Stat. § 732.601, applies when there is insufficient evidence that two people died other than simultaneously and the governing instrument does not express a contrary intent. The statute provides different presumptions depending on the property involved. For example, when ownership depends on who died first, each person’s property is generally distributed as though that person survived. Jointly held property and life insurance proceeds have their own statutory treatment.

If evidence establishes that one spouse survived the other, even briefly, Florida’s simultaneous-death statute may not answer the question. The will, trust, beneficiary designation, deed, policy terms, and other applicable law may instead control. That is why a carefully drafted survival period can be so important.

Florida’s statutory defaults also cannot account for your blended family, separate property, tax planning, charitable goals, or a beneficiary with special needs.

The bottom line: Florida law provides a fallback when the order of death cannot be established. Your estate plan should state the outcome you intentionally choose.

A Joint Trust Still Requires Precise Instructions

A joint revocable trust does not make close-in-time death questions disappear.

The trust should explain what happens after the first death, whether a survival period applies, what changes if the surviving spouse dies during that period, and how assets are divided after both spouses are gone.

Other assets may require separate attention. Retirement accounts, life insurance, Florida homestead property, separate property, and assets that were never transferred into the trust can each raise additional legal and planning questions.

For blended families, precise drafting is especially important. The plan may need to support a surviving spouse while preserving assets for children from a prior relationship. The appropriate structure depends on the family, the assets, and the legacy the couple wants to leave.

The bottom line: A joint trust is a sophisticated planning tool, but its instructions must align with asset ownership and the intended family outcome.

Beneficiary Designations Must Align With the Plan

Life insurance, retirement accounts, and many financial accounts generally transfer according to beneficiary designations—not simply according to a will.

Consider a life insurance policy naming a spouse as the primary beneficiary and an adult child as the contingent beneficiary. If the spouse dies shortly after the insured, the policy terms, beneficiary form, evidence concerning the order of death, and applicable Florida law may determine who receives the proceeds.

During an estate-plan review, we consider the complete picture: wills, trusts, asset ownership, beneficiary designations, family structure, and fiduciary roles. When appropriate, we coordinate with the client’s financial, insurance, and tax advisors.

Your family will experience these assets as one legacy. Your plan should treat them that way.

The bottom line: Survivorship planning is effective only when the legal documents, asset titles, and beneficiary designations work together.

Clarity Matters Most During a Crisis

When two deaths happen close together, loved ones should not be left to reconstruct intentions from incomplete or conflicting documents.

An ongoing relationship with Florida Wills & Trusts Law gives the family a trusted resource who understands the plan and its purpose. We can help identify the assets involved, determine which instructions apply, and coordinate with other professional advisors when necessary.

A thoughtful review should answer four questions:

• If we die hours or days apart, whose beneficiaries receive the assets?
• Could property pass through two estates or probate administrations?
• Do our trust, will, asset titles, and beneficiary designations provide a coordinated result?
• Does that result still reflect our family and legacy goals?

The bottom line: Clear documents provide legal direction. An ongoing advisory relationship helps the family implement that direction when it matters most.

Review Your Plan Before the Question Becomes Urgent

Review your documents for the words “survive” or “survivorship” and note any stated survival period. Do not change beneficiary designations or copy a survivorship clause from the internet based solely on this article. Florida law, document language, asset ownership, and family circumstances all matter.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we create Life & Legacy Plans designed around the client—not a one-size-fits-all form. The relationship continues after the documents are signed so the plan can remain aligned with the people, property, and purpose it was created to protect.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call to review how your plan addresses deaths occurring close together.

Or call Florida Wills & Trusts Law at 239-331-7977.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm serving families in Florida. We do not simply draft documents; we help you make informed and empowered decisions about life, death, and the people you love. During your Life & Legacy Planning® Session, you will become more financially organized and make thoughtful choices for your family and legacy. Call our office today at 239-331-7977 to schedule your session.

The content is sourced in part from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to provide accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you need legal advice specific to your circumstances, consult a qualified attorney.

© 2026 Florida Wills & Trusts Law

Your daughter is a physician with a growing practice. Your son is an attorney on the path to partnership. Your youngest built a company that now employs 14 people.

You are proud of them. You trust their judgment, and you want their inheritance to strengthen the lives they have worked hard to build.

Leaving an inheritance outright may feel like the clearest way to show that trust. But success often comes with exposure that direct ownership does not protect against. A physician may face a malpractice claim. An attorney may take on obligations connected to a firm. A founder may personally guarantee a lease or line of credit. A real estate investor may face a claim that exceeds available insurance.

The concern is not that your child is irresponsible. Responsibility does not eliminate risk.

An inheritance trust for adult children can place thoughtful protection around family wealth before it enters the legal and financial risks connected to the life your child has built. When designed properly, it can preserve flexibility and access without treating a capable adult like a child.

Why Would a Responsible Adult Child Need a Trust?

Many people associate inheritance trusts with minor children, addiction, or poor money management. Those can be valid reasons to plan, but they are far from the only ones.

A successful adult child may still encounter:

• A professional liability claim
• Business debt or a personal guarantee
• Divorce or the commingling of inherited and marital assets
• A serious illness or injury that changes decision-making needs
• An untimely death that redirects the inheritance through the child’s own estate plan or applicable state law

Imagine that your daughter inherits $900,000 outright. She uses $250,000 toward a jointly titled home, places $150,000 into a joint investment account, and invests $300,000 in a business for which she has signed personal guarantees.

The money has not simply disappeared. However, the legal and practical picture has changed. How those assets may be treated later can depend on state law, titling, recordkeeping, agreements, and what happened after the inheritance was received.

“My child is responsible” does not fully answer the planning question. A better question is: What risks come with the life my child has built, and should the inheritance arrive with protection already around it?

What Changes When an Inheritance Is Distributed Outright?

An outright inheritance is straightforward. Once the estate or trust administration is complete, the assets are distributed directly to your child. Your child owns them, controls them, invests them, spends them, and decides what happens next.

That simplicity can be appropriate for some families. It also means the protection available while assets remain in trust does not automatically follow the money.

Once an inheritance is distributed outright:

• It becomes part of the beneficiary’s personal financial life rather than remaining in a separate structure.
• Preserving any available protection may require careful titling, recordkeeping, agreements, and financial decisions.
• Funds placed in joint accounts or jointly owned property may become more difficult to identify or trace.
• Assets invested in a business or pledged for a personal obligation may be exposed to that risk.
• If the beneficiary dies, the remaining inheritance passes according to its titling, beneficiary designations, the beneficiary’s estate plan, or state law—not necessarily along the family line the parent intended.

By contrast, a properly designed trust can continue for an adult child after a parent’s death. The child’s share remains in a separate structure, and the trustee manages and distributes the assets under the terms of the trust.

The child may still benefit from the inheritance for housing, health care, education, family support, business opportunities, and other purposes. The plan can also give the child meaningful involvement while preserving legal separation where it matters.

This is not a universal promise of asset protection. The result depends on applicable law, the trust’s language, how much control the beneficiary holds, who serves as trustee, and how the trust is administered. “In trust” is not the full strategy. The details are the strategy.

A Strong Marriage Does Not Eliminate the Planning Question

Considering divorce risk does not mean assuming your child’s marriage will fail. It means recognizing that life can change and preserving options before a crisis occurs.

Suppose your son inherits $600,000. He and his spouse have been married for 15 years. They use $200,000 to renovate their jointly owned home, place another $200,000 in an account they both use, and leave the balance in an account titled only in his name.

Five years later, they separate. The outcome may depend on state law, tracing, titling, agreements, and the specific facts. It would be unwise to assume every dollar will automatically receive the treatment the family expected simply because it began as an inheritance.

A continuing trust can create a clearer boundary between family wealth and the beneficiary’s personal balance sheet. It can also reduce the pressure on an adult child to make every protection decision while grieving.

The goal is not to exclude a spouse. The goal is to preserve choices.

Professional Success Can Increase Financial Exposure

The more successful your child becomes, the more risk may accompany that success.

According to a 2026 American Medical Association analysis, 28.7% of physicians surveyed in 2024 reported having been sued during their careers. The rate was 59.6% among obstetricians and gynecologists and 53.1% among general surgeons. A lawsuit does not necessarily mean the physician did anything wrong. It illustrates that professional achievement and legal exposure can exist at the same time.

Insurance, business entities, contracts, and other risk-management strategies are important. An inheritance plan should work alongside those protections rather than assuming they eliminate every risk.

For example, imagine your daughter owns 30% of a growing company. She inherits $1.2 million outright and invests $400,000 into the company during an expansion. The company later defaults on debt she personally guaranteed.

She may have made a careful, informed decision because she wanted to support the business she built. She also placed a portion of the family inheritance into the same risk pool as the company.

Had the inheritance remained in a properly designed trust, she might have had more choices about how to support the business, how much to expose, and what to preserve for her children.

Protection Should Support Stewardship, Not Replace It

Some parents hear “lifetime trust” and picture their adult child asking permission for every purchase. A thoughtfully designed plan does not have to work that way.

The right structure balances access, responsibility, flexibility, and protection. Depending on the family and the applicable law, an adult child may have a meaningful decision-making role. An independent trustee or co-trustee can handle decisions for which independence matters. The trust can provide guidance while leaving room for judgment as life changes.

The family conversation matters too. What was the wealth meant to make possible?

Was it intended to provide housing security, educate grandchildren, fund a business opportunity, create freedom to care for family, or keep one crisis from undoing decades of work?

An inheritance is more than an amount on a statement. It represents time, work, choices, and care from one generation placed into the hands of another. Protection is not punishment. It is stewardship.

Review What Your Current Plan Actually Says

Find the section of your estate plan describing what each adult child will receive. Does the child’s share distribute outright at a particular age, or does it remain in trust? Who controls it? What flexibility is included? Which protections depend on the trustee, the beneficiary’s powers, or the way the trust is administered?

Do not amend your plan based on a generic checklist. The appropriate design depends on your family, assets, goals, and the real lives of the people who will inherit.

At Florida Wills & Trusts Law, we help families create Life & Legacy Plans designed to protect both the people they love and the wealth they worked hard to build. Schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session at www.flwillsandtrustslaw.com/schedule-consultation/ or call 239-331-7977 to begin the conversation.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.

© 2026 Personal Family Lawyer, all rights reserved. Licensed for use by member firms.

You bought the policy when your first child was born. You chose an amount that felt enormous, named your spouse, added the premium to autopay, and felt the relief of knowing your family would have money if you died.

You acted to protect your family. A life insurance beneficiary review respects that decision while asking whether the policy still fits the life you built afterward.

Now it is 10 years later.

Your income has changed. The mortgage is larger. You have two children, not one. Your old policy still names the same people in the same way, and no one has completed a life insurance beneficiary review since you created your estate plan.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. It is a good time to ask more than, “Do I have a policy?” The better question is: Will the money reach the right people, at the right time, with the protection and guidance I intended?

Test Your Life Insurance Beneficiary Review Against the Numbers

The policy was designed for a snapshot of your life.

Your family kept moving.

A $500,000 death benefit may sound like a lot. But if your family needs to replace $100,000 of annual income, continue making a $2,400 monthly mortgage payment, fund childcare, and create an education reserve, the math changes fast. Five years of income replacement alone consumes the full policy before the mortgage or childcare is addressed.

Now test the policy against the years your family would need support. If the mortgage payment is $2,400 a month, five years adds another $144,000. If childcare costs $18,000 a year per child for two children, three years adds $108,000. The original $500,000 policy is already short by $252,000 before college, final expenses, or an emergency reserve enters the calculation.

The amount is only one part of the review. I also want to know whether you married, divorced, remarried, had another child, became responsible for a parent, started a business, or created a trust after the policy was issued.

Each change affects what the insurance money is supposed to do.

This is not about chasing a perfect number. It is about measuring the gap between the policy you bought and the responsibilities your family carries today.

The bottom line: A policy built for your old life may not fund the future your current family would need.

Naming a Child Does Not Create a Plan for the Money

You may have named your child because the policy is for them. The intention makes sense. The mechanics may not.

Insurance companies generally do not pay a death benefit directly to a minor. If no appropriate structure is waiting, a court-supervised process or state-law custodial arrangement may determine who manages the money and when the child receives control. That result may have little to do with the age, protections, or guidance you would have chosen.

Now picture an 18-year-old receiving what remains of a $750,000 policy. The issue is not whether your child is “good with money.” The issue is whether anyone should be expected to steward that amount, while grieving a parent, without the structure and people you would have selected.

A trust may be part of the answer, but the word “trust” is not enough. The trust must be designed for the child, the beneficiary form must name it correctly, and the trustee must understand the responsibility. The plan should also address when money can be used for housing, education, health, opportunity, and support, without turning your love into control from the grave.

The same review should include a Kids Protection Plan® so the people caring for your child and the people managing the money are chosen and coordinated, not left to separate court processes. The insurance helps fund the care. The plan identifies who can step in, what they need to know, and how your child’s life stays as familiar and protected as possible.

The bottom line: Naming your child tells the insurer who the money is for. Planning determines who will manage it and what it can make possible.

A Trust Can Protect the Money Only When the Pieces Match

For one family, naming a trust may protect the proceeds from a child’s divorce, creditors, lawsuit, addiction, or financial inexperience. For another, an outright designation may be appropriate. The right answer depends on the people, not a universal form.

Life insurance generally passes according to the beneficiary designation on the policy. It does not automatically follow your will, and creating a trust does not automatically redirect the proceeds into it. The form may still name a former spouse, omit a child born later, point to an old trust, or leave the contingent beneficiary blank.

The IRS generally excludes life insurance proceeds paid because of the insured person’s death from the beneficiary’s gross income. That favorable treatment does not answer the family question. Someone still has to decide who receives the money, who manages it, and how it supports the people you love.

When I review this with you, I look at questions the beneficiary form cannot ask:

• How old will each child likely be when the policy is needed?
• Who should make decisions while a child is young?
• Does a beneficiary have special needs or receive means-tested benefits?
• Is this a blended family with competing responsibilities?
• Should the money be protected from creditors or divorce?
• What other assets and insurance will reach the same person?
• Who can carry out your instructions with judgment and care?

This is where tax, insurance, financial, and legal decisions meet real life. Your insurance professional can help evaluate the policy. Your financial advisor can model the funding need. Your tax advisor can flag tax consequences. My role is to hold the family and legal picture while those professionals do their work, so the pieces tell the same story.

The bottom line: A trust is useful only when the policy, trust terms, trustee, and family goals are deliberately coordinated.

What the Policy Is Meant to Protect

Life insurance is often described as a death benefit. I see it as a stewardship decision you make while you are alive.

The money may buy your spouse time to grieve before making a financial decision. It may keep your children in the home and school they know.

It may allow a caregiver to reduce work hours, fund college without debt, or keep a family business from being sold under pressure.

Those outcomes are the purpose. The policy is one funding tool.

This is also why your family should not have to discover the policy by accident. Someone should know the carrier, policy number, owner, insured person, beneficiaries, and where the current records are kept. If premiums are no longer being paid or the policy has changed, the plan needs to know that too.

The bottom line: Good stewardship connects the money to the life you want it to protect.

Personal Family Lawyer® Attorneys: Holding the Whole Picture

This is the gap I help you close before a crisis through an ongoing Personal Family Lawyer relationship. We review the policy beside your trust, beneficiary designations, family circumstances, financial picture, and the values the money is meant to carry forward. I do not replace your insurance or financial professionals. I help keep the legal and family pieces connected to their work.

The relationship matters in the moment too. When you die, your family should not have to search old emails, guess which policy is active, or introduce themselves to a lawyer who has never met you. Because you have an ongoing relationship, your family has someone who knows the plan, knows the people, and can help the advisor team act from the same picture.

The bottom line: The policy provides money. The relationship helps your family use the plan you created around it.

Life & Legacy Planning® Session: What You Can Do Right Now

Pull the current beneficiary confirmation for every life insurance policy you own. Identify the primary beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, policy amount, and policy owner.

Then stop before changing anything.

A beneficiary form cannot tell you whether the trust is designed to receive the proceeds, whether the designation uses the correct legal language, whether the ownership creates tax or planning consequences, or whether the result fits your family today. Bring the confirmation to your planning session so it can be reviewed alongside your trust, assets, family circumstances, and the people you have chosen.

As a Personal Family Lawyer firm, I help you create a Life & Legacy Plan that coordinates your insurance, assets, legal tools, trusted people, and the future you want for your family. The relationship doesn’t end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows to call me.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call and let’s find out where you stand.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.

© 2026

You did the work. You saved for retirement, created an estate plan, and named beneficiaries because you wanted the people you love to be protected.

Perhaps you named your trust as the beneficiary of your IRA because you did not want a child to receive a large inheritance all at once. Maybe you wanted to protect the money in case of a divorce, lawsuit, addiction, financial trouble, or poor decision-making.

That choice may have made perfect sense when you created your plan.

But retirement account rules have changed. If no one has reviewed your trust and IRA beneficiary designation since the SECURE Act became law, your plan may no longer work the way you intended.

The issue is not simply whether your family will receive the money. The issue is how quickly the money must leave the IRA, who controls it after it leaves, and how much of it could be lost to taxes.

In 2026, a trust reaches the highest federal income tax bracket of 37% when it has more than $16,000 in taxable income. A single person does not reach that same bracket until taxable income exceeds $640,600.

That is a dramatic difference, but the tax rate is only one part of the decision. The larger question is this: What do you want your retirement savings to make possible for the people you love?

The SECURE Act Changed What Happens to an Inherited IRA

To understand the problem, it helps to begin with what happens when someone inherits a traditional IRA.

Money inside a traditional IRA has generally not been taxed yet. Taxes are usually paid when money is withdrawn from the account. The longer the money remains inside the IRA, the longer it may continue growing without being taxed.

Before 2020, many people who inherited an IRA could spread those withdrawals over their expected lifetime. A younger beneficiary might have been able to take smaller withdrawals over several decades.

The SECURE Act changed that rule for most people who inherit retirement accounts.

Now, many beneficiaries must withdraw all the money from an inherited IRA within 10 years. In some cases, they must also take withdrawals during those 10 years instead of waiting until the final year to empty the account.

This shorter timeline can create a larger tax burden. If your adult child inherits your IRA during their highest-earning years, the required IRA withdrawals may be added to income from a job, business, investments, or other sources.

The rules are different for certain eligible beneficiaries, including a surviving spouse, a qualifying minor child, a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, or someone close to the original account owner in age.

The rules can become even more complicated when a trust—not an individual person—is named as the beneficiary.

The trust must be written correctly to qualify for certain inherited IRA rules. If it qualifies as a “see-through trust,” the IRS may look through the trust and base the withdrawal rules on the people who will ultimately benefit from it.

If the trust does not qualify, the IRA may have to be emptied under a different and potentially less favorable schedule. Depending on when the IRA owner dies and whether required minimum distributions had begun, that could mean a five-year withdrawal period or a schedule based on the original owner’s remaining life expectancy.

This is why the IRA, the beneficiary form, the trust language, and the people who will inherit must be reviewed together.

The bottom line: Your IRA does not exist separately from your estate plan. The SECURE Act changed the rules your plan must follow.

Why the $16,000 Tax Bracket Matters

A trust has its own income tax brackets, and those brackets are much more compressed than the tax brackets for an individual.

In plain language, that means a trust can reach a high tax rate with a relatively small amount of taxable income.

For 2026, the federal income tax brackets for estates and trusts are:

• 10% on the first $3,300 of taxable income;
• 24% on taxable income from $3,300 to $11,700;
• 35% on taxable income from $11,700 to $16,000; and
• 37% on taxable income over $16,000.

These are marginal tax brackets. Crossing the $16,000 line does not mean every dollar is suddenly taxed at 37%. Only the taxable income within the highest bracket is taxed at that rate.

Still, a trust reaches that top bracket much faster than an individual person does.

Imagine that your trust inherits your IRA. The IRA then makes a taxable withdrawal to the trust. If the trust keeps that money instead of distributing it to your child, the trust may owe income tax on it at the trust’s tax rates.

That can become expensive quickly.

The obvious response may seem to be, “Then just give all the money to my child so the trust does not pay the higher tax.”

Sometimes that is the right answer. Sometimes it defeats the entire reason the trust was created.

Your child may be going through a divorce. They may own a business and have signed personal guarantees. They may struggle with addiction, spending, creditors, or an unstable relationship. They may simply be too young or inexperienced to manage a large amount of money.

Giving the money directly to your child may lower the immediate tax bill, but it may also expose the inheritance to the exact risks you wanted the trust to prevent.

The bottom line: The $16,000 figure is a warning to review the plan. It is not an automatic instruction to distribute all the money.

Two Families With the Same IRA May Need Different Plans

Suppose two parents each have a $500,000 IRA and want to leave it to an adult child.

The first adult child has a stable career, a strong marriage, no significant debt, and experience managing money. The parents may be comfortable allowing IRA withdrawals to pass directly to that child.

The second adult child is in the middle of a divorce, owns a business carrying substantial debt, or has difficulty managing money. Those parents may care more about keeping the inheritance protected, even if doing so could result in a higher tax bill.

The account balance is the same, but the families do not need the same plan.

One option may be a conduit trust. When the trust receives a withdrawal from the IRA, the trust generally passes that money on to the beneficiary. Because the money is distributed, it is generally reported on the beneficiary’s individual income tax return rather than being retained and taxed inside the trust.

This may result in a lower tax rate, but the money is now in the beneficiary’s hands. Once distributed, it may no longer have the same protection from creditors, lawsuits, divorce, or poor financial decisions.

Another option may be an accumulation trust. This type of trust may allow the trustee to keep IRA withdrawals inside the trust instead of immediately distributing them to the beneficiary.

Keeping the money in the trust may provide greater protection, but retained taxable income may be subject to the trust’s compressed tax brackets.

Neither type of trust is automatically better. The right structure depends on the people involved and what you want the inheritance to accomplish.

We must consider the beneficiary’s age, maturity, health, marriage, debt, work, financial experience, and other resources. We also need to consider whether protecting the money is more important than giving the beneficiary immediate access to it.

The bottom line: The best plan is not necessarily the one with the lowest tax bill. It is the one that balances taxes, protection, and your family’s actual needs.

Your Beneficiary Form Can Override the Rest of Your Plan

Many people believe their will or trust controls everything they own when they die. That is not always true.

An IRA generally passes according to the beneficiary designation kept by the financial institution. It does not usually pass according to the instructions in your will.

That small beneficiary form can control what happens to one of your largest assets.

You may have beautifully prepared estate planning documents sitting in a binder, but an old beneficiary designation can send your IRA somewhere else.

The form may still name a former spouse. It may name an adult child directly even though your current plan says the child’s inheritance should remain protected in a trust. It may name a trust that has since been amended or replaced.

Even if the correct trust is named, the trust language may have been written before the SECURE Act changed the inherited IRA rules. The form and the trust may technically match while still creating a tax or withdrawal result you did not expect.

Reviewing only the trust is not enough. Reviewing only the beneficiary form is not enough. We need to place them side by side and ask whether they still accomplish the same goal.

Your attorney may also need to coordinate with your financial advisor, CPA, and insurance professional. Each person is responsible for a different piece, but all those pieces must work together.

The bottom line: Your IRA beneficiary designation is part of your estate plan, even though it is not stored inside your estate planning documents.

Tax Savings and Inheritance Protection Are Not the Same Thing

It is tempting to judge an estate plan by how little tax it creates. Taxes matter, but paying the least possible tax is not every family’s only goal.

Suppose distributing an IRA withdrawal directly to your child would lower the income tax. That sounds like a clear win until you learn that your child is divorcing, being sued, facing creditors, or struggling with addiction.

A lower tax bill will not feel like a victory if the remaining inheritance is lost.

On the other hand, keeping every dollar inside a highly restrictive trust may not make sense for a responsible adult child who could use the money wisely to buy a home, educate their children, start a business, or build a secure future.

A good plan considers both sides.

We want to understand the tax cost of keeping money protected and the personal cost of distributing it outright. Then you can make an informed decision based on your priorities instead of allowing the tax rules to make the decision for you.

The bottom line: Tax efficiency is important, but it should support your family’s goals—not replace them.

Protecting Money Is Only Part of Preparing Your Family

Parents often say they want to protect an inheritance without controlling their children from the grave. That is an important distinction.

A trust should provide a stronger foundation for the next generation. It should not prevent capable beneficiaries from growing, making decisions, and building lives of their own.

That means we must ask questions that do not appear on an IRA beneficiary form.

Do your children understand why you created the trust? Do they know why some money may remain protected instead of being handed to them immediately? Have you chosen a trustee who understands both the legal responsibility and the person whose life will be affected?

Does your trustee know when a distribution may be appropriate? Does your family know whom to call when the IRA owner dies? Do your financial advisor, CPA, and attorney understand the plan?

The legal documents matter, but the people carrying out the plan matter just as much.

A trust can protect the inheritance. A relationship-based estate planning process can also prepare your family, preserve important information, and give the people you love someone to call when decisions must be made.

The bottom line: Protecting the money and preparing the people who will receive it are two separate jobs. A strong estate plan does both.

Your Estate Plan Must Change When Your Life Changes

The plan that worked five years ago may not work today.

Your IRA may have grown significantly. A child may have married or divorced. A beneficiary may have developed health, addiction, creditor, or financial problems. Your chosen trustee may no longer be the right person for the job.

The law may also have changed since your documents were signed.

That does not necessarily mean your original plan was wrong. It means estate planning is not a one-time transaction.

You should have the opportunity to review these changes while you are alive and able to make choices. Waiting until after your death leaves your family to work with the documents and beneficiary forms exactly as they exist at that moment.

An ongoing relationship with your estate planning attorney also gives your family a place to turn when the plan must be carried out. They should not have to search for accounts, interpret complicated documents, and introduce themselves to a stranger while they are grieving.

When your attorney already knows your plan, your family, and what your wealth was intended to accomplish, the legal process becomes more personal and less overwhelming.

The bottom line: Your documents create the plan, but an ongoing relationship helps keep that plan connected to your real life.

What You Can Do Right Now

If your estate plan was created before the SECURE Act, your IRA has grown, or a trust is named as your beneficiary, now is a good time to review the entire plan.

Begin by locating your current IRA beneficiary designation. Do not assume the form says what you remember choosing years ago.

Then review that form alongside your trust and the rest of your estate plan. Ask:

• Is the correct person or trust named?
• Does the trust qualify for the inherited IRA treatment we expect?
• How quickly will the IRA have to be withdrawn?
• Will withdrawals be distributed to the beneficiary or retained in the trust?
• Who will pay the income tax?
• What protections could be lost if the money is distributed?
• Have the law, account value, or beneficiary’s circumstances changed?

These questions do not always have simple answers, but your family should not discover the answers after your death.

What You Can Do Right Now

If your estate plan predates the SECURE Act, your IRA has grown, or a trust is named as beneficiary and no one has reviewed the decision recently, bring the whole plan back to the table.

As a Personal Family Lawyer firm, I help you create a Life & Legacy Plan that coordinates your family, assets, beneficiary designations, legal documents, and advisor team. The relationship doesn’t end when the documents are signed. When something happens, your family knows to call me.

Schedule a Life and Legacy Planning Session and let’s find out where you stand.

This article is a service of Florida Wills & Trusts Law, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.

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