Beneficiary review
We go through every account with you and show you what each one currently says. Designations override a will, so this is where intentions and paperwork most often disagree. What you do about it stays your call.
Estate and legacy
Where it actually goes, and what it costs to get there
Most estate problems are not caused by a bad will. They are caused by a beneficiary form nobody has looked at since 2009, and no document fixes that on its own.
Start here
Beneficiary designations override your will. If the form on an old retirement account names a former spouse, a deceased parent, or nobody at all, that is what governs, no matter what the will says and no matter what everyone understood you to want.
It costs nothing to look. It is the first thing we go through, before anything more elaborate is on the table.
Estate coordination
The financial half, and the part that connects to everything else we do. This runs under a planning engagement.
Asset flow mapping
One page showing where each asset would go and by what mechanism: designation, joint title, trust, or will. Most people have never seen theirs drawn out.
Survivor income
What the surviving spouse actually lives on, and what changes in the first year: a lost Social Security check, single filing status, compressed brackets.
Transfer tax
Which assets are efficient to inherit and which arrive with a bill attached. Step-up in basis, inherited IRA rules, and the ten-year window heirs now face.
The documents
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney. They get done here rather than farmed out to somebody you then have to explain your whole situation to, and we sit with you while it happens.
We are not a law firm and we do not give legal advice. Where your situation calls for an attorney, we will say so rather than let you find out later.
Why both
Estate decisions are retirement decisions wearing a different hat. A Roth conversion made for your own bracket also changes what your children inherit and what they pay on it. Naming a trust as beneficiary of an IRA can undo the outcome you had in mind. Which spouse owns which account changes what happens at the first death.
A document can be perfectly valid and still produce a result you never intended, if nobody was looking at your tax position and your income plan at the same time.
Common questions
Do beneficiary designations override a will?
Yes. If the form on an old retirement account names a former spouse, a deceased parent, or nobody at all, that is what governs, regardless of what the will says. It is the most common way an estate plan produces an outcome nobody intended.
Are you a law firm?
No. Savino & Associates is not a law firm, does not employ attorneys, and does not practice law. No communication with the firm creates an attorney-client relationship or attracts attorney-client privilege. Where your situation calls for an attorney, we will say so.
Do you handle the documents, or do I need to find a lawyer?
Wills, trusts and powers of attorney get done as part of the work here rather than farmed out to somebody you then have to explain your situation to. Matters identified as complex are routed for attorney review.
Start with a conversation
If you are not certain your documents and your accounts still agree with each other, that is the conversation worth having. It is usually a short one.