By: Thomas Law Group On: May 15, 2013 In: Estate Planning Comments: 0

Spring cleaning shouldn’t be just around your house. You should also make a point to regularly check all of your accounts, including bank accounts, brokerage accounts and insurance policies to make sure that you have the proper beneficiary designation. Many people forget to change beneficiaries which are necessitated by the death of a named beneficiary, a divorce from the named beneficiary, or the birth of a child who may become a beneficiary of a trust. Most people remember to change beneficiaries on life insurance policies, but many times forget to check whether or not they have changed beneficiaries on IRAs, deeds, auto titles (in Ohio you can have a transfer on death designation made on a vehicle in individual names) and any other account which you do not want a specific person to have upon your death. Ohio cases now show that failure to correctly name a beneficiary almost always results in the property being transferred to an unintended beneficiary.