Estate Planning
Fiduciary Retirement planning
The Plan Most People Have Doesn't Match Their Intent.
Most estate plans fail not because the documents are missing. They fail because the documents don't match each other. A will written ten years ago that says one thing. A beneficiary form on the 401(k) that says something else. Account titling that overrides both. A trust that was funded incompletely, or never funded at all. The result: a meaningful portion of what you built ends up in the wrong place, lost to unnecessary taxes, delayed by probate, or distributed against your actual wishes.
We coordinate the estate planning piece with the rest of your financial plan. Foundational documents (wills, revocable living trusts, powers of attorney) are handled through our estate planning partner, with the work itself done remotely at a flat fee. Your beneficiary designations, account titling, and trust structures get reviewed against your tax plan, your Roth strategy, and your actual intent. The goal isn't more paperwork. It's a plan where every document, every account, and every account title say the same thing.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Built for Households With Real Assets and No Coordinated Plan.
Clients with $500K+ in retirement and taxable accounts, real estate, possibly a small business, who have either no estate documents at all, or documents written ten or more years ago that haven't been reviewed against current laws or current life circumstances. Particularly valuable for households where the estate plan was drafted before retirement, before grandchildren, or before significant asset growth changed what's actually at stake.
Pillars of Your Estate Strategy
Estate planning isn't one document. It's the alignment of documents, accounts, and intentions so the plan does what you actually want it to do. Here's how we handle each layer.
Foundational Documents
The base layer of any estate plan: a will, a revocable living trust where appropriate, durable powers of attorney for finances and healthcare, and a HIPAA authorization. These get drafted through our estate planning partner on a flat-fee model, with the document work handled remotely through a guided online process. You complete it on your own schedule, at your own pace, without the hourly billing or scheduling friction of traditional estate firms. For most LFS households, this is the foundation. For complex situations, we coordinate the introduction to a specialized attorney instead.
Beneficiary & Account Alignment
This is where most estate plans quietly fail. A beneficiary designation on a retirement account overrides whatever the will says, every time. A jointly titled account passes outside the will and outside the trust, regardless of intent. A trust that wasn't funded with assets does nothing. We review every account against your stated intent: beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, transfer-on-death registrations on taxable accounts, account titling on jointly held assets, and which assets have been (or should be) re-titled into your trust. The documents and the accounts have to say the same thing.
Tax-Aware Legacy Coordination
What your heirs actually receive depends as much on the tax treatment of the asset as on the asset itself. A traditional IRA left to a non-spouse beneficiary creates a 10-year forced withdrawal under current rules, often at the heir's peak earning years and highest tax bracket. A Roth account left to the same heir passes tax-free. A step-up in basis on taxable assets can erase decades of capital gains. We coordinate which assets go to which heirs (and through which vehicle) so the legacy that arrives matches the one you intended.
Let's Build Your Estate Plan
On your Retirement Coordination Review, Jonathan reviews your current estate documents (or the absence of them), your beneficiary designations, and how those align with your tax and investment strategy. Then we show you what a coordinated estate plan would look like. No pressure. No product pitch. Just clarity.
Layer 01
Document Foundation
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and HIPAA authorizations handled through our estate planning partner on a flat-fee, remote model. Foundational planning that gets done, not a folder of intentions that sits on the to-do list.
Layer 02
Alignment & Coordination
Beneficiary designations, account titling, and trust funding reviewed against your actual intent and your tax strategy. The work that makes the documents you sign actually do what you want them to do.
Two layers. One coordinated estate plan. The kind of work that fails when one piece exists in isolation, and works when every piece points the same direction.
What's Included
The Work Behind a Coordinated Estate Plan.
- Foundational document drafting through our estate planning partner
- Revocable living trust setup where appropriate
- Durable powers of attorney (financial and healthcare)
- HIPAA authorizations and advance directives
- Beneficiary designation review across every account
- Trust funding and account titling review
- Tax-aware coordination of asset distribution to heirs
- Annual plan review as laws and circumstances change
The Coordination Advantage
An Estate Plan Touches Every Other Decision.
Estate decisions are shaped by tax strategy, investment account structure, and the way income flows through your retirement. Here's how the pieces connect when one team handles all of it.
What your heirs receive depends heavily on the tax treatment of the asset and the timing of the transfer. A large traditional IRA passed to a non-spouse heir creates a forced 10-year drawdown at their tax bracket. A Roth balance doesn't. We model the inheritance tax picture alongside your annual tax plan, not after the fact.
Tax Planning
For households with significant traditional IRA balances, RMDs in your lifetime and the inherited RMD rules for your heirs are part of the same conversation. The decisions you make about distributions in your 70s shape what's left to inherit and in what form.
RMD Planning
Why Choose Leonard Financial Solutions?
Estate planning gets handled in a lot of different places. Here's what makes this one different.
Fiduciary by Law
As a fiduciary firm, our advisory recommendations are legally required to be in your best interest. That standard extends to the estate decisions we coordinate alongside your investment, tax, and income plan.
Estate Planning Partner
Foundational estate documents are handled through our estate planning partner, Easy Legal Planning. A flat-fee, fully remote model with over twenty years of estate document experience and tens of thousands of documents drafted across all 50 states. For complex estates that need specialized legal counsel, we coordinate that introduction separately.
Coordinated With Everything Else
Most estate plans get drafted in isolation by an attorney who never sees your financial plan. Most financial plans ignore the estate piece entirely. We do both in the same room, with the same team, so the documents you sign actually align with the accounts you own and the taxes you pay.
Your Retirement Coordination Review: Three Simple Steps
A coordinated estate plan starts with one conversation. Here's how it works.
Book Your Review
Choose a time on Jonathan's calendar. Two minutes, no prep work required.
We Review Your Estate Picture
Jonathan walks through your current documents (or absence of them), your beneficiary designations, your account titling, and how those align with your stated intent. Where document work is needed, we coordinate the introduction to our estate planning partner.
You Get a Clear Picture
No product pitch. Just an honest read on whether your current estate plan reflects your actual wishes, where the gaps are, and what a coordinated plan would look like for your situation.
No cost. No obligation. Just the information you need to decide what to do next.
Common Questions Answered
Got a question? Here's where most people start.
Do I really need a trust, or is a will enough?
It depends on your situation. A will alone works for many households, particularly those with straightforward assets and clear beneficiary designations. A revocable living trust adds value when you want to avoid probate, hold property in multiple states, plan for incapacity, or set conditions on how heirs receive assets. The right answer depends on your assets, your family, your state of residence, and your goals. We walk you through both options without a default recommendation in either direction.
What happens to my IRA when I pass away?
It depends on your beneficiary designation and the relationship of the beneficiary. A spouse can roll the IRA into their own and continue tax-deferred growth. A non-spouse beneficiary (an adult child, for example) is generally required under current rules to withdraw the entire balance within ten years, with the timing and tax bracket of those withdrawals significantly affecting what they actually receive. We model the after-tax inheritance picture as part of the broader estate plan, not as an afterthought.
How do beneficiary designations interact with my will?
They override it, every time. A beneficiary designation on a retirement account, life insurance policy, or transfer-on-death registration passes directly to the named beneficiary, regardless of what the will says. This is the single most common point of failure in estate planning. A will updated in 2020 means very little if the IRA beneficiary form was filled out in 2005 and still names an ex-spouse. We review every designation against the current intent.
Take the Next Step
Start Building Estate Plan
Whether you have outdated documents, no documents at all, or a stack of paperwork you've never been sure actually fits together, the right time to coordinate is now. The Retirement Coordination Review is where we start. One session, your situation, no obligation.
