Are Pensions Treated the Same in Your Estate Plan as Other Retirement Accounts?

Pension and retirement accounts often form a large portion of an individual’s wealth and should be accounted for in an estate plan. If a retirement account holder completes a proper beneficiary designation, their account assets will bypass probate. The benefit and beneficiary rules applicable to different types of retirement accounts vary and should be discussed with an estate planning attorney, especially with the recent passage of the SECURE Act.