Is Anything Wrong with Your Estate Plan? Here are 5 Common Mistakes
A few years ago, I received a phone call from a woman understandably upset that she might not inherit any of her deceased father's large 401(k) plan, even though he was divorced and she was an only child. Unfortunately, about a year before, her father been divorced for the second time and failed to remove his ex-wife as the beneficiary of his 401(k).
When he unexpectedly died, his ex-wife remained the beneficiary of his account. According to the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), she was entitled to receive the assets. While the man probably never intended for his ex-wife to receive these assets and entirely cut out his only child, that is exactly what happened due to a simple administrative oversight. The daughter was simply out of
