Imagine you're in your 80s. You've raised a family, built a life with your spouse, and accumulated more money than you'll ever spend. Wanting to leave a blessing rather than a burden, you hire a qualified estate-planning attorney and put your affairs in order.
What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a bit, as it turns out.
One family's carefully designed estate plan has spent six years winding its way through federal court. What was intended to be quick, private, and inexpensive has become public, painfully slow, and enormously costly.
One of my favorite definitions of OPM is "Other People's Mistakes." The cheapest education you'll ever receive is learning from someone else's expensive lesson. Let's do that here.
A Smart Plan for 36 Grandchildren
The principals in this drama were a husband and wife who updated their estate plan in 2014 while in their 80s. Like many people at that stage of life, they assumed this would be the final revision to their plan.
They created a sophisticated strategy for passing a $1.7 million retirement account to their 36 grandchildren. At the time, inherited retirement accounts could generally be stretched over a beneficiary's lifetime, allowing years—even decades—of tax-deferred growth.
To accomplish this, they established 36 separate trusts, one for each grandchild. The attorney instructed them to update the beneficiary designation on the workplace retirement plan so the assets would flow directly into those trusts.
It was a thoughtful plan. It should have worked.
Had everything gone according to plan, the grandchildren would now be six years into receiving distributions while the inherited accounts continued growing tax deferred.
Instead, the family finds itself locked in a legal battle that has consumed years, generated substantial legal fees, and attracted national attention, including coverage in the Wall Street Journal.
Where Things Started to Go Wrong
As is often the case, the problem was not the estate plan itself. The problem arose from the interaction between a workplace retirement plan, federal law, and a beneficiary designation that could not be clearly verified.
The mistakes occurred on several levels, each of which can be avoided.
According to a May 15th 2026 article in the Wall Street Journal, the beneficiary forms were updated when the trusts were created in 2014. Yet years later, neither the attorney nor any of the couple's twelve children appeared to have written confirmation of the change.
The investment company servicing the university retirement plan initially indicated the beneficiary change was on file. Later, when one of the sons called while acting under a power of attorney, he was told there was no record of the change.
Believing he had solved the problem, he submitted new beneficiary forms under authority granted by the power of attorney.
The Catch-22
Unfortunately, he ran headfirst into a federal rule designed to protect spouses.
Most employer-sponsored retirement plans require a spouse to remain the primary beneficiary unless the spouse signs a formal waiver. The son's power of attorney specifically authorized beneficiary changes, but the university argued that it did not authorize the spousal waiver necessary to make those changes effective.
In other words, the document authorized the destination but, according to the university, not the road needed to get there.
How's that for a Catch-22?
From there, the dispute devolved into what often happens when large institutions, retirement plans, and lawyers become involved. Responsibility was passed from one party to another. Positions hardened. Litigation followed.
Even if the family ultimately prevails, it will be difficult to call the outcome a victory. Years have been lost. Legal fees have accumulated. The emotional toll has been substantial.
The Real Tragedy
What makes this story particularly sad is that there appears to be no family conflict. The children and grandchildren are not fighting among themselves. They simply cannot get the retirement assets transferred to the trusts that were created for them.
The tragedy is compounded by how easily the problem might have been avoided.
Had the retirement assets been rolled from the employer plan into an IRA before incapacity became an issue, the process would likely have been far simpler.
Why IRAs Are Often Simpler
When your money remains in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, the plan administrator ultimately works for the sponsoring institution. The institution is the client.
With an IRA, you are the client.
The "I" in IRA stands for Individual, not Institutional.
In many states, beneficiary designations on IRAs can be updated without the spousal-waiver complications that often accompany workplace retirement plans. The forms are typically easier to obtain, easier to update, and easier to verify.
In this case, the assets could likely have been transferred into one IRA with 36 beneficiaries or into separate inherited IRAs as needed.
In today's world of electronic signatures and online account management, the process might have required little more than a brief phone call and a few mouse clicks.
Your Estate Plan Isn't Finished Yet
If you're like me, stories like this can keep you awake at night.
That's why we review beneficiary designations annually for clients who engage us for ongoing planning. We want written confirmation that beneficiary designations match the client's intentions.
If you've made it this far, consider this your reminder.
Request a written beneficiary confirmation from every institution where you maintain a retirement account. Don't assume the records are correct. Verify them.
For accounts we manage, give Sarah a call and we'll be happy to provide a beneficiary confirmation report. If you still have assets in a former employer's retirement plan, contact the plan administrator and obtain written verification of every beneficiary designation.
Estate planning isn't finished when the documents are signed.
Beneficiary forms often control where retirement accounts ultimately go, and a single missing, outdated, or disputed designation can derail an otherwise excellent plan.
Now is the time to identify and correct any mistakes.
Because the best estate-planning mistake is someone else's.
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