Beatrice Phan Law, PC

09/01/2026

09/01/2026

Q: “Should I remove my trust as my IRA beneficiary because trusts reach the 37% tax bracket so quickly?”

Please don’t make that decision based on one number.

Your trust may be providing protections your family needs.

If it can retain IRA withdrawals, the trust may pay more in income tax. But those assets may remain protected if your child faces a divorce, lawsuit, addiction crisis, or season when receiving the money outright would do more harm than good.

When I review this with you, I don’t look only at the tax rate.

I look at who will inherit, what’s happening in their life, what else they may receive, what protection they need, and what you want this wealth to accomplish.

The lowest-tax answer isn’t automatically the best answer for your family.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/31/your-trust-could-reach-the-37-tax-bracket-at-just-16000/

08/31/2026

You did the work.

You saved for retirement, created an estate plan, and named beneficiaries because you wanted the people you love to be protected.

That matters.

But the rules changed after many families created their plans.

In 2026, a trust enters the 37% federal marginal income tax bracket once taxable income exceeds $16,000. A single individual doesn’t enter that bracket until taxable income exceeds $640,600.

That number deserves your attention. It does not tell you what to do.

A trust may protect your child’s inheritance during a divorce, lawsuit, addiction crisis, or season when they aren’t ready to manage the money. Removing that protection to reduce a tax bill could solve one problem while creating a much bigger one.

The right question isn’t simply, “How do we pay the least tax?”

It’s, “What do I want this wealth to make possible, and how do I protect that purpose as efficiently as I can?”

This week’s article explains how the original SECURE Act changed inherited IRA planning and why your IRA, trust, and beneficiary designation need to work together.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/31/your-trust-could-reach-the-37-tax-bracket-at-just-16000/

08/28/2026

Did you know that signing a trust and funding a trust are two completely different steps? Most families only do one.

Signing a trust creates a legal container. But the assets don't move automatically. Your home, your bank accounts, your investment accounts: if those aren't actually transferred into the trust, they're still in your name, not the trust's name. And assets still in your name go through probate, regardless of what the trust says.

This is one of the most common estate planning failures I encounter: a family paid for a trust, assumed they were protected, and found out years later that nothing was ever transferred into it. The trust document was in a folder. The plan never actually happened.

If you received a trust this August, or if you've had one for years and aren't sure whether it's funded, that's the question to ask your attorney this week.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/24/you-made-a-will-heres-what-it-cant-do/

08/27/2026

In case you missed it this week, the thing most families discover at exactly the wrong moment.

The beneficiary designation forms on your retirement accounts, your life insurance, and your bank accounts with transfer-on-death elections are the ones that actually control who gets the money. Not your will.

It doesn't matter what your will says. Beneficiary designations override your will completely. And those forms, often filled out at your first job, when you were 22, before your spouse, before your kids, are sitting in a file at the institution right now, with whatever names you put on them then.

A former spouse. A parent who passed away. A child named directly, which creates a court-supervised guardianship of that money until they turn 18.

The fix is straightforward: a review of every designation, a primary and a contingent that reflects your actual life. But it has to be done deliberately. It doesn't happen automatically.

This week's article is the full checklist for what comes next after making a will.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/24/you-made-a-will-heres-what-it-cant-do/

08/25/2026

Q: "I just made a will. Am I actually done?"

It's the most common assumption families make. It's exactly the gap a Personal Family Lawyer® firm is designed to close.

A will tells a court what you want when you die. It does not update your beneficiary designations, which can override your will completely regardless of what it says. It does not fund your trust: signing a trust and funding a trust are two different steps, and most families only do one. It does not address what happens if you're incapacitated rather than deceased. And it doesn't stay current as your life changes.

Real planning looks different. A Life & Legacy Planning® Session covers the full picture: what's in place, what's missing, and what actually needs to happen next.

A will is a starting point. It is not a plan.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/24/you-made-a-will-heres-what-it-cant-do/

08/24/2026

You made a will this August. That was the right move, and it matters more than you know.

But here's what most people don't find out until it's too late: making a will and protecting your family are not the same thing.

A will doesn't update your beneficiary designations. Those forms can override your will completely. It doesn't fund your trust. If your assets were never transferred into it, your estate still goes through probate. And a will does nothing if you're incapacitated rather than deceased. That's a completely different set of documents.

Most families discover these gaps at the worst possible moment.

This week's article is the checklist for what comes next: what it takes to make sure the plan you signed is the plan your family can count on.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/24/you-made-a-will-heres-what-it-cant-do/

08/21/2026

A life insurance policy that lapses sends no notification to the beneficiary.

No letter. No phone call. No warning. The premium stops being paid, the grace period runs out, and the policy disappears quietly. The family has no idea until they need it.

This happens more often than most people expect, because most families have no one whose job it is to verify, each year, that the policy is still active, that the beneficiary designation is still correct, and that the coverage still matches the family's actual needs.

In the case of Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, according to his widow's complaint, the $1 million life insurance policy he agreed to purchase was never purchased at all. But lapsed policies, outdated beneficiary designations, and unchecked commitments are the quieter version of the same problem. They show up in families who assumed everything was handled.

A review isn't a formality. It's the whole point.

This week's article breaks down what a verification should have caught.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/17/the-cosby-show-made-him-famous-his-estate-plan-failed-his-family-heres-what-i-would-have-done/

08/20/2026

Here's the part of the Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner case that almost no one is talking about.

The lawsuit focuses on $1.2 million in unfulfilled financial commitments. But there's a nine-year-old daughter whose father died tragically in a drowning accident on a family vacation at the center of this story. And financial commitments are only part of what she needed.

A will names a guardian. But a will isn't read for days after a death. In the immediate hours after a parent dies, schools, hospitals, and first responders need legal documentation they can act on right now. Not a document sitting in a file waiting to be probated.

Without a Kids Protection Plan® in place, there is no one legally authorized to make decisions for that child in the first critical hours. And that question exists completely separately from the financial disputes in the complaint.

Even if every dollar had been paid, this would still be unresolved.

This week's blog covers both layers of planning: the financial commitments and the legal authority piece that most families never think about until it's too late.

https://bphanlaw.com/2026/08/17/the-cosby-show-made-him-famous-his-estate-plan-failed-his-family-heres-what-i-would-have-done/