Beneficiary Designation and Asset Titling Review in Kentucky

Divorce revokes your will, not your beneficiary forms

Under KRS 394.092, a divorce or annulment automatically revokes any disposition of property your will makes to your former spouse, and any nomination of that former spouse as executor, trustee, conservator or guardian. The statute does its job well. But by its terms it reaches the will and nothing else. It does not touch the beneficiary designation on a 401k, an IRA, a life insurance policy, an annuity, or a payable-on-death bank account. Many national articles describe a broader rule that sweeps in non-probate designations. Kentucky statute does not say that.

What the Review Covers

Retirement accounts

401k, 403b, IRA and similar accounts. We check the primary and contingent beneficiaries, and discuss the tax consequences for whoever inherits, since most non-spouse beneficiaries must now withdraw an inherited retirement account within ten years.

Life insurance and annuities

Primary and contingent beneficiaries, and whether the proceeds are going where the rest of the plan assumes. Employer-provided coverage is the most frequently forgotten policy of all.

Bank and brokerage accounts

Payable-on-death and multiple-party account designations under KRS 391.300 to 391.355, and transfer-on-death registration for securities under KRS 292.6501 to 292.6512. Kentucky permits both, and they override your will.

Real property

The recorded deed for every parcel. Under KRS 381.120 Kentucky has no automatic survivorship, so we confirm the deed expressly says what you believe it says. See deed preparation and real property transfer.

Vehicles, business interests and personal property

Titles, operating agreements and buy-sell provisions. A business interest with a buy-sell agreement may already be committed regardless of what your will provides.

Trust funding

If you have a trust, whether each asset is actually titled in its name. An unfunded trust is the most common defect we find, and it turns a probate-avoidance plan into a full probate.

No contingent beneficiary named

If the primary beneficiary dies before you and no contingent is named, the asset typically defaults to your estate. That forces it through probate, exposes it to creditors, and for a retirement account can accelerate income tax dramatically compared with a properly named individual.

A minor named directly

A minor cannot receive and manage an inheritance. Naming a child or grandchild directly on a policy typically requires a court-appointed conservator under KRS Chapter 387 and hands the full balance to that child at eighteen. A trust named as beneficiary solves both problems.

How the Review Works

It is a short, practical appointment. You bring the paperwork, we build a single picture of how everything transfers, and you leave with a written list of exactly which forms to change and what to put on them.

Where a change is straightforward, such as adding a contingent beneficiary or updating a form after a divorce, you can usually handle it yourself with the institution in a few minutes. Where the right answer is a trust named as beneficiary, or a new deed, we prepare what is needed.

We do this as a standalone service and as part of every will or trust plan we draft, because a plan we complete without checking the titling is a plan we have only half finished.

Bring whatever you can find. An incomplete picture is still far better than none, and we can usually identify the gaps from a recent statement alone.

• A recent statement for each bank, brokerage and retirement account
• Life insurance policies, including any provided through your employer
• Annuity contracts and pension paperwork
• The recorded deed for your home and any other real property
• Vehicle titles, and documents for any business interest you hold
• Your current will, trust, and any amendments
• Your divorce decree, if you have been divorced

Mistakes That Undo a Good Plan

Assuming the will controls everything

It controls probate property only. For most families the retirement accounts, life insurance and the house are the bulk of the estate and none of them are governed by the will.

Never updating a form after a divorce

KRS 394.092 revokes the gift to a former spouse in your will. It does not reach a single beneficiary designation. This is the most expensive gap in Kentucky estate planning.

Naming a trust as beneficiary without checking the terms

It is often the right move, particularly for minors or a beneficiary on benefits. But an inherited retirement account paid to a trust that is not properly drafted can compress the payout and the tax. The trust language and the designation have to be written for each other.

Relying on a joint account for convenience

Adding an adult child to your bank account so they can help pay bills also gives them ownership, exposes the balance to their creditors, and at your death may pass the entire account to that one child rather than to all your children. A power of attorney accomplishes the help without the transfer.

Leaving the deed unread

People are confident about what their deed says and are wrong often enough that we always pull the recorded copy. KRS 381.120 means survivorship has to be expressly stated.

Doing it once and never again

Designations should be reviewed whenever the family changes and otherwise every few years. Institutions merge, forms get lost in conversions, and a beneficiary named in 2009 may no longer be on file at all.