Incorporating College Savings Accounts into Your Estate Planning

Do you already have a college savings account set aside for your child or grandchild? If so, this is prudent planning. But you might want to take things one step further to ensure you’ve considered all potential aspects of planning for the future should something happen to you.

If you wish to support a beneficiary’s desire for college education in the future, you can do so using various estate planning tools. The most popular one of these is a 529 Plan and it is extremely important to consider determining a successor to oversee the distribution of a 529 Plan in the event that a parent passes away.

Parents who begin these tax advantage education savings plan that do not name a successor are at risk of having someone they are not familiar with controlling the child’s education funding if the parent is to suddenly pass away.

A successor is the individual who gets control of the account if the account owner passes away or is no longer capable of making decisions. Parents who stipulate a successor could still risk that that individual doesn’t control their wishes, but it is important for parents to prepare just in case. The right procedure for articulating a 529 Plan successor and someone to step in and manage your affairs if you are unable to so, is extremely important and should be handled with care, from the assistance of an estate planning attorney.