This is great if one creates and update beneficiary info and TOD. IRA/401k without beneficiary may not go where you want.There is a lot of talk about the need to leave a will. However, in many circumstances with a little planning, you don't need a will. For instance, if your assets are in the below-listed accounts, don't bother to have a will:
- property you’ve transferred to a living trust
- life insurance proceeds
- funds in an IRA, 401(k), or other retirement account
- securities held in a transfer-on-death account
- payable-on-death bank accounts, or
- property you own with someone else in joint tenancy or tenancy by the entirety.
All of these assets will pass to the surviving co-owner or to the beneficiary you named, whether or not you have a will...
Be really careful of doing estate planing using joint tenancy. There are many stories where an elder parent will put a child on the title of a brokerage account or house and then the child runs into legal issues like a car accident and lose part or all of the asset. Also the child may not get the same basis step up since they are now an owner and not the beneficiary. Also the process of adding someone other than a spouse to the title would likely be considered a gift and trigger a gift tax return and at least a hit to the unified exclusion (plus state gift tax where applicable) unless the amount is below the annual gift amounts to an individual.
From what I understand you can put things without titles in trusts buy listing them in such a way that they are well defined or using a deed of gift (or similar). This really does not eliminate the need for a pour over will if you want to be in control of how all your assets will be dispersed. Being a trust takes it out of public record.It seems from what I have heard attorneys tend to produce a pour over will even with a living trust just in case something is omitted. One thing that could be omitted otherwise is jewelry and household goods and furniture. Since these things don't have titles it is not possible to put them into a trust. A pour over will just puts the residue of your estate into a trust. Pour Over Will Definition, Examples, Processes. It is sort of a just in case something is is not put into the trust, this takes care of it. It need not be a very complex will as the link provides an example.