McLean, Virginia · Wills & Estate Planning

Beneficiary coordination means ensuring that the accounts that pass outside your will actually align with your plan. In Virginia, retirement accounts, life insurance, and payable-on-death accounts go straight to whoever is named on the form, no matter what your will says. In McLean, this is the most common way a careful estate plan still goes wrong. Your will and your beneficiary forms have to tell the same story.

By Corrie Sirkin, Esq. · Founding Partner, NOVA Legal Professionals

This article is one part of our larger estate planning guide. For the full picture, start with our cornerstone, Wills and Estate Planning in Virginia. Here, I will focus on beneficiary coordination and the gap it closes in your McLean estate plan.

Why some assets ignore your will

People assume a will controls everything they own. It does not. A large share of what most families own passes by beneficiary designation or by operation of law, completely outside the will. Whoever is named on the account form receives the asset directly, and the instructions in your will do not override that form. So you can have a perfect will and still send a major asset to the wrong person, simply because a form from years ago was never updated. You can read more on our beneficiary coordination page.

The accounts that pass by their own form

The usual list is longer than people expect. Retirement accounts such as a 401(k) or IRA pass to their named beneficiary. Life insurance pays whoever is on the policy. Bank accounts can carry a payable-on-death designation, and investment accounts a transfer-on-death registration. Virginia even allows a transfer-on-death deed for real estate, recorded with the circuit court clerk while you are living. Each of these moves outside probate and outside your will. That is convenient, but only if every form actually names the person you intend.

The stale beneficiary form is the classic mistake

The single most common problem we see is a form that was right years ago and is wrong now. An ex-spouse still listed on a 401(k). A parent named on a life insurance policy bought before the kids were born. A sibling on an old IRA. Because the form controls, that outdated name wins, even over a brand new will that says something different. Reviewing every beneficiary designation is not glamorous work, but it catches the errors that quietly undo an otherwise solid plan.

Naming a minor child directly is a trap

It feels natural to list your young child as the beneficiary of your life insurance or retirement account. In practice, a minor cannot legally receive and manage that money, so naming one directly can force a court-supervised guardianship of the estate, with bond and annual accountings, until the child turns eighteen, and then hand them a lump sum the day they become an adult. A cleaner approach is to direct those funds into a testamentary trust so a trustee manages the money on terms you set. We make sure the forms and the plan work together.

Coordinating it all

Coordination is the quiet work that makes the rest of your plan hold. We inventory every account that carries a beneficiary or transfer-on-death feature, check each name against what your will and your goals actually say, and fix the mismatches. We confirm contingent beneficiaries are named too, so a single death does not send an asset somewhere random. Done once and reviewed after big life changes, it closes the most common gap in an estate plan.

How we help in McLean

We review your retirement accounts, life insurance, bank and investment accounts, and any real estate, then line every beneficiary designation up with your will and your wishes. We flag stale forms, add contingent beneficiaries, and route money meant for minors into a trust rather than a court process. We serve families across McLean and the Langley and Chain Bridge Road area. You can read more on our beneficiary coordination page.

Frequently Asked Questions