Estate Planning

At Smartt Wealth, estate planning isn't about drafting legal documents. It's about making sure your financial accounts, beneficiary designations, and wealth transfer intentions are all pointing in the same direction. For the legal side — wills, trusts, powers of attorney — we work alongside estate attorneys and can help you understand what questions to bring to that conversation.

What Good Estate Planning Actually Covers

Most people think of estate planning as something you do once, sign, and file away. In practice, it's an ongoing coordination effort — and the financial side of that is often the piece that gets missed.

 

Here's what we focus on with clients:

 

  • Beneficiary designation reviews. Who is actually named on your retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and transfer-on-death accounts? These designations override your will entirely. We review them, flag anything outdated or misaligned, and help you update them correctly.
  • Account ownership and titling. How your accounts are titled affects how they transfer. We make sure the structure of your accounts matches your intentions.
  • Multi-generational wealth transfer planning. If you want your children and grandchildren to benefit from what you've built, that needs to be part of the plan now — not something they figure out later.
  • Coordination with estate attorneys. We work alongside your attorney (or can point you toward one) to make sure your financial plan and your legal documents are telling the same story.
  • Ongoing reviews as life changes. Marriages, divorces, new grandchildren, deaths in the family — any of these can make a previously solid plan suddenly outdated.

Why Beneficiary Reviews Matter More Than Most People Realize

If there's one estate planning task that consistently gets overlooked, it's beneficiary designations. A will does not govern who inherits your IRA. It does not govern your 401(k), your life insurance policy, or your brokerage accounts with a transfer-on-death designation. Those assets go directly to whoever is named — regardless of what any other document says.

 

We've seen accounts still naming an ex-spouse. Accounts that name a deceased parent. Accounts with no beneficiary listed at all, which means the asset may pass through probate rather than directly to the family. A beneficiary designation review takes a short amount of time and can prevent an enormous amount of confusion and conflict for your heirs. It's one of the most concrete, immediate things we do as part of estate planning — and most clients are surprised it wasn't already on their radar.

Planning for the Generation After Yours

One of the clearest priorities we hear from clients is this: "I want my kids and grandkids to actually benefit from what I've built." That's not just a retirement goal — it's an estate planning goal. And it requires thinking beyond your own lifetime.

 

Multi-generational wealth transfer planning looks at how assets move from you to your children, and from your children to your grandchildren. It considers tax implications, account structures, and whether your current plan is set up to carry forward the way you intend. We've been working with East Valley families since 1979, which means we've guided clients through actual estate transitions — not just hypothetical ones. That experience shapes how we approach this work.

 

If you have adult children or grandchildren you want to bring into the planning conversation, we welcome that. The American Dream Experience, our two-day financial education class, is one way families start building shared financial literacy across generations.

ANSWERS before we begin

Common Questions About Estate Planning

  • Do I need an estate attorney, or can Smartt Wealth handle everything?

    Both, ideally. We handle the financial coordination side — beneficiary designations, account titling, asset alignment, and multi-generational transfer planning. For legal documents like wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, you'll want a licensed estate attorney. We're happy to help you understand what questions to bring to that conversation.

  • How often should I review my estate plan?

    We recommend revisiting the financial side of your estate plan any time you experience a major life change — marriage, divorce, the birth of a grandchild, the death of a named beneficiary, or a significant shift in assets. Even without a life event, a periodic review every few years helps catch anything that's drifted out of alignment.

  • Can my beneficiary designations really override my will?

    Yes — and this surprises a lot of people. Assets like IRAs, 401(k)s, life insurance policies, and transfer-on-death brokerage accounts pass directly to whoever is named on the account, regardless of what your will says. Keeping those designations current is one of the most important things you can do.

  • What if I don't have a large estate — is this still relevant to me?

    Absolutely. Estate planning isn't just for the wealthy. Anyone with a retirement account, a life insurance policy, or family members they care about has something worth organizing. We work with clients at every asset level, and the basics — like updated beneficiary designations — matter just as much on a modest estate as a large one.

  • Do you work with our kids and grandkids too?

    Yes, and we genuinely enjoy it. Helping the next generation understand how inherited assets work — and how to build their own financial foundation — is something we've been doing for decades. It's one of the reasons we created the American Dream Experience class.