Question 1

Does my will control my 401(k) and life insurance?

Accepted Answer

No. Beneficiary designations are a contract between you and the account custodian, and they pay out directly to the named person outside of probate. A will that says one thing and a beneficiary form that says another is not a conflict — the form simply wins. This is the most common way an otherwise good estate plan fails.

Question 2

Can I name my partner instead of my spouse on a 401(k)?

Accepted Answer

Not unilaterally. Employer plans governed by ERISA name a legal spouse as the default beneficiary, and naming anyone else requires the spouse's written, notarized consent. IRAs have no such rule, which is one reason the two account types need to be reviewed separately rather than as one 'retirement' bucket.

Question 3

Should I name a trust as beneficiary instead of a person?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes. A trust makes sense when beneficiaries are minors, when you want to control timing rather than hand over a lump sum, when you're providing for someone with a disability, or when you want privacy. For a straightforward adult beneficiary, naming the person directly is usually simpler and faster. Trust-as-beneficiary also has real tax consequences for retirement accounts, so it should be a deliberate choice, not a default.

Question 4

How much life insurance do we actually need?

Accepted Answer

Start with the obligations it would have to replace, not a multiple of income: remaining mortgage, the survivor's income gap through their own retirement, family-building costs already committed, and any Social Security survivor benefit that wouldn't be available. For LGBTQ+ households where a partner may not qualify for spousal survivor benefits, that last piece is often the biggest number on the list.

Question 5

Term or permanent?

Accepted Answer

For most households, level term covering the years the obligations exist is the honest answer, and it's dramatically cheaper. Permanent insurance solves specific problems — estate liquidity at higher net worth, lifelong support for a dependent, funding a buy-sell agreement. Aequitas is fee-only and sells no products, so there is no commission attached to either recommendation.

Question 6

How often should we review beneficiaries?

Accepted Answer

At every job change, every marriage or separation, every birth or adoption, and otherwise once a year alongside your annual review. It takes about twenty minutes and it's the highest return-per-minute task in personal finance.

Question 7

What happens to an HSA when a non-spouse inherits it?

Accepted Answer

A surviving spouse simply takes it over as their own HSA, with no tax and no deadline. For anyone else, the account stops being an HSA on the date of death and the full balance becomes taxable income to that person in the year of death — there is no stretch and no inherited-HSA equivalent of an inherited IRA. The one offset is that the taxable amount is reduced by any of the decedent's qualified medical expenses the beneficiary pays within twelve months of the death. If the estate is named instead of a person, the balance lands on the decedent's final tax return. Practically, this makes an HSA one of the least efficient accounts to leave an unmarried partner and a good candidate to spend down in later years.

The form beats the will

The order of operations nobody explains

Beneficiary designations

Titling & survivorship

Trust terms

Your will

State intestacy law

Eight places a designation is hiding

What comes up on an LGBTQ+ application

HIV status

PrEP

Gender marker & transition care

Insurable interest

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Life insurance and beneficiaries, answered

Level Ground

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