Aug. 12, 2025
How Do I Change a Beneficiary Designation with My Will or Trust?
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Well, good afternoon, Michiganers, and welcome to Tuesday with Tom,
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Michigan's Only podcast where we talk about estate planning, a
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state settlement, and everything in between. As always, I'm your host,
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Tom Doyle, a state planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and
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ambassador for all things good in this great state of Michigan. Welcome,
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Welcome to today's episode. Well, just a b recap of
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the last episode Understanding Michigan Certificate of Law Trust. Many
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of you might have a certificate of trust that was
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prepared with your estate plan, or you might be dealing
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with the title company you're selling real estate and they're
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asking you for a certificate of trust and you're wondering
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what that is and why it's important. Well, if you
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have any questions about certificate of trust, I invite you
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listen to our last episode. I discuss the legal requirements
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for a certificate of trust and what they are used
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for in the state of Michigan. Today's show, though, how
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do I change a beneficiary designation with my will or trust?
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A question that a man and I are frequently asked
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when clients come in. They might have already put beneficiaries
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on life insurance policies, they put beneficiars on bank accounts,
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but beneficiaries on their retirement plans, et cetera. But now
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they want to change those and they're wondering how can
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they do that by either having a will or having
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a trust. So that's what we're going to be talking
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about today, how beneficiary designations work and how you can
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change them with a will or trust. But please remember
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what I'm about to discuss is, as always, for educational
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purposes only. It is not intended to be legal advice.
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As always, you need to work with you and your
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attorney to determine what is appropriate for you and your
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estate plan. So how do you change a beneficiary designation
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with your will or your trust. Well, let's start with
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identifying what it is we're actually talking about today. So
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what's a will. Well, if you've attended one of our
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seminars or you've listened to previous episodes of this program,
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you'll know that a will is simply a legal document.
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In that document, it talks about where you want your
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estate to go to, who the de disease are, if
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you will in your will, if you have mind your children.
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You're going to be talking about who's going to raise
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your children until they get to be eighteen. But that's
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basically what a will is. It's a legal document. It
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has to meet the requirements for properly prepared and executed
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in the state of Michigan. And the other thing though
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that you would know is that a will is a
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meaningless document until a couple things die, a couple things happen.
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I'm sorry, one is you die. So until you die,
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the will is really a meaningless accumulation of paper, and
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it is meaningless until a probated state is opened. But
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once a probatea state is opened, then the will is
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going to control all of the assets that you own
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that are going to go through probate. Now, what's a trust. Well,
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a trust is very much like a will in the
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sense that it is a legal document. A trust is
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normally used to provide how you want your state to
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be disturbed at the time of your death, and you're
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going to have a trustee, someone who's going to be
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in charge of that. Those are basically the primary functions
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of a trust. Now, one difference, major difference between having
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a trust and having a will is that assets that
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are in the trust don't go through probate, where assets
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that are only going to be controlled by your will
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are the only those assets that actually go through probate.
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So think of a trust. Though I've talked about this
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in previous episodes as though it's a box sitting in
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front of you on the table as you're listening to
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today's episode. The trust controls assets that you put in
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the box, i e. Assets that are, as lawyers called it,
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funded to your trust. So what's a beneficiary designation? Well,
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beneficiary and there's a there's a different number of terms,
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but they all essentially mean the same thing. It might
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be a beneficiary, It might be a TOD which stands
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for transfer on death. That might be a POD which
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means payable on death, but the essentially all mean the
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same thing. It's essentially a contract between you and a company.
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It might be you and your bank. It might be
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you and your life insurance company. It might be between
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you and your financial management company. Whatever it is where
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it's a written contract between you in the company. And
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basically what that contract does is it spells out who
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or where you want assets to go at the time
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of your death. So use life insurance as an example.
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You have a life insurance policy. You have a beneficiary
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designation on your life insurance policy, and that life insurance
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designation might indicate, for example, on upon your death, you
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want your life insurance to go to your spouse. Well,
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that's the contract between you and the life insurance company.
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Or it might be a bank account between you and
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your credit union, or you and your bank, et cetera.
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But essentially, per that contract, upon your death, those assets
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that are controlled by that contract are going to go
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directly to the person that you wanted them to go to,
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meaning what they do not go through probate. However, it
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could be let's say that person that you designated as
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a beneficiary dies before you and you haven't named an
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alternate to that person, and then in that case the
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assets are still actually going to go through probate. But
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the idea is you've got a contract, you're looking to
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avoid probate, and you're saying, I want these assets to
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go directly to this person upon my death. Well, with
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that as our explanation today, then let's think about assets.
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Let's look at the situation where you have a beneficiary
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on your bank account and you say, hey, can I
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change the beneficiary on my bank account by having a
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will or having a trust, or maybe you've got a
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beneficiary on your annuity and you're looking and saying, can
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I how can I change that beneficiary? So all of
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these different things where you have been beneficiaries on them,
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bank accounts, annuities, life insurance, I raise for one k's.
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All of those assets where you've got beneficiaries on them,
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you're looking in saying how do I change them with
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my will or my trust? Well, if you keep in
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mind that the will is only going to affect assets
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that go through probate, and the beneficiary assets the assets
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that you have beneficiaries on avoid probate, the answer is
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you can't change that. Of course, amand and I would
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be honored to If you've got questions about your beneficiary
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designations and how they fit into your state plan, we'd
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be happy to help discuss that with you, or creating
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a state plan for you if you don't already have one,
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or perhaps updating the state plan that you already have,
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or guide you through the entire estate settlement process if
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you're looking at settling and a state and we're trying
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to make it easy as we can to get started.
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If you simply go to our website DOYLELOWPC dot com.
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There you're going to find information on how to schedule
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appointments with us. It can be a virtual consultation that
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will be via zoom or phone wherever you happen to
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be in the state of Michigan, or we offer in
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person appointments both in Ground Rapids and Lancing, So if
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you live in the Grand Rapids area or the Lancing area,
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you will be able to schedule a consultation through the website.
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Reminder two, if perhaps all you need is one document,
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let's say maybe you're just looking at having a new
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healthcare power returnity created for you, Well check out the
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legal store again available at Doyle LAWPC dot com, and
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there you're going to see that you have the ability
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to order just individual documents as well that can be
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prepared and emailed to you for execution. Again, all of
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that and more information is available at DOYLELAWPC dot com. Well,
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that's a wrap, as they say, for today's show. As always, Oh,
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if you have a comment about the program, a question
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you'd like answered, or a topic that you'd like me
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to cover in future episodes, head over to Tuesday with
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Tom dot com. You can leave me a voice message
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by clicking on the microphone or just send me an
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email that would be Tom at Tuesday with Tom dot
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com and be sure to follow us on Facebook. Invite
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your family and friends to do the same at Tuesday
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You can do that at Tuesday with Tom dot com
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or DOYLELAPC either location, where we will keep you updated
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on things that are happening with the program and other
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estate planning tips. And remember too, you can listen to
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Tuesday with Tom wherever you enjoy your podcast run many
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play Tuesday with Tom as well. Well. Thanks again for
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spending part of your day with us today and until
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the next time, take care, stay safe, and have an
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awesome day and an awesome week here in Michigan. Tuesday
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with Tom has been brought to you by the estate
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planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC to learn how we
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can help you with your estate plan or with settling
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a loved one's estate, Please call us today at five
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one seven three two three seven three sixty six. That's
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five one seven, three two three seven three sixty six
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00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:40.960
120
00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.440
121
00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.399
122
00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:50.519
123
00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:54.679
124
00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:57.960
125
00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:02.519
126
00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:06.279
127
00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:10.359
128
00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:13.039
129
00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:16.319
130
00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:20.920
131
00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.759
132
00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:28.920
133
00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:33.440
134
00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:36.920
135
00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:40.960
136
00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.559
137
00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:47.119
138
00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:51.839
139
00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:57.400
140
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:14.920
141
00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:18.559
142
00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.920
143
00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.480
144
00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:28.039
145
00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:31.079
146
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:34.480
147
00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:38.000
148
00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:41.759
149
00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:44.119
150
00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:47.960
151
00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.119
152
00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:54.359
153
00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.319
154
00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:03.599
155
00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:08.200
156
00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:12.799
157
00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:17.519
158
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:22.920
159
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:26.359
160
00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:32.400
161
00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:35.519
162
00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:41.200
163
00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:54.160
164
00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:56.200
165
00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.200
166
00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:02.880
167
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:06.160
168
00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:09.680
169
00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:12.920
