Estate and Legacy Planning
Most estate problems are not caused by missing documents. They are caused by beneficiary designations and account titling that quietly contradict the documents that exist.
What does estate and legacy planning involve at KBR?
KBR does not draft legal documents. The work is coordination: making sure beneficiary designations, account titling and asset structure actually match the will and trust your attorney prepared, and that the plan produces the outcome you intend. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance pass outside a will entirely, so an outdated designation overrides whatever the will says. This is not legal advice; work with a qualified estate attorney.
The will is not the whole plan.
Households often assume that once the attorney has been paid, the estate is handled. The documents are usually fine. The accounts are frequently not.
Retirement accounts, life insurance and annuities pass by beneficiary designation, not by will. If an old form still names a former spouse, a deceased parent or nobody at all, that form governs, and the carefully drafted will does not override it.
Titling does similar work quietly. Whether an account is individual, joint with right of survivorship, or held by a trust determines where it goes and how quickly, regardless of intent expressed elsewhere.
Trusts add another layer, because a trust that is never funded does very little. Documents get signed and then the accounts are never retitled into the trust, which leaves an arrangement that looks complete on paper and behaves as though it does not exist.
None of this requires a lawyer to find. It requires someone to sit down with the actual account records and the actual documents side by side, which is what this part of the work is.
What the coordination covers.
Alongside your attorney, not instead of them.
- Primary and contingent beneficiaries on every retirement account
- Beneficiaries on life insurance and annuity contracts
- Whether any designation still names someone who should no longer be there
- Account titling, including individual, joint and trust-held accounts
- Whether a trust that exists has actually been funded
- Transfer on death and payable on death arrangements where appropriate
- How inherited retirement accounts will be taxed for the people receiving them
- Whether the distribution timeline creates a tax problem for an heir
- Charitable intentions and the most tax-efficient way to carry them out
- Where the documents live and whether the people who will need them know
Not everything travels the same way.
A general map of how different assets transfer. Specifics vary by state and by document, and your attorney is the authority on your situation.
| Asset | How it typically passes |
|---|---|
| IRA, 401(k) and other retirement accounts | By beneficiary designation, outside the will |
| Life insurance and annuities | By beneficiary designation, outside the will |
| Jointly held accounts with survivorship | To the surviving owner by operation of law |
| Accounts titled to a funded trust | Under the terms of the trust |
| Individually titled accounts with no designation | Through the will, and generally through probate |
| Real property | By deed and titling, which may or may not match the will |
Common questions.
Does KBR write wills or trusts?
No. Drafting legal documents is the work of a qualified estate attorney licensed in your state, and nothing here is legal advice. What KBR does is make sure the financial side matches what those documents intend: beneficiary designations, titling, funding of trusts and the tax consequences for the people who inherit.
Why do beneficiary designations matter more than my will?
Because for retirement accounts, life insurance and annuities they control. Those assets pass by designation, outside the will, so if the form is outdated it governs regardless of what the will says. It is one of the most common and most avoidable estate problems, and it is fixed by reviewing forms rather than by redrafting documents.
What happens to my IRA when my children inherit it?
Rules for inherited retirement accounts changed significantly under the SECURE Act, and many non-spouse beneficiaries now face a compressed distribution window rather than being able to stretch withdrawals across a lifetime. That can land a large amount of taxable income on an heir during their highest-earning years. It is worth modeling in advance, since it sometimes changes which account you would prefer to leave to whom. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
We set up a trust years ago. Is that enough?
Only if it was funded. A trust document that exists while the accounts and property were never retitled into it does very little, and this is a common gap. Checking whether a trust actually holds what it was meant to hold is a straightforward review and worth doing.
How often should this be reviewed?
At minimum after any significant life event: a marriage, a divorce, a death, a birth, a move to another state, a large inheritance, or the sale of a business or property. Beyond that, a periodic check makes sense simply because designations made a decade ago tend to reflect a household that no longer exists.
Check that the accounts agree with the documents.
A designation review is quick and frequently finds something. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
