Your Will and Trust Might Not Do What You Think

Most people can tell you the year they signed their will or set up their trust. Far fewer can tell you what those documents actually say.

Estate documents get written once, tucked into a drawer or a safe deposit box, and treated as finished business. But a will or a trust is a set of instructions, and instructions written five, ten, or twenty years ago may no longer match the life you're living now.

August happens to be National Make-A-Will Month, which is as good a nudge as any to ask a simple question: if something happened to you tomorrow, would your wills and trusts actually do what you think they do?

The Gap Between "Done" and "Current"

According to Trust & Will's 2026 Estate Planning Report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. adults conducted January 28-February 5, 2026, 26% of Americans surveyed reported having a will, down from 31% in 2025, while trust ownership has increased from 11% to 14% over the same period. Having neither document is the more obvious risk. The quieter problem is just as common: plenty of people who have a will, a trust, or both haven't looked at them in years. Caring.com's 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study found nearly one in four respondents has never updated their will since the day it was first signed, even though marriage, divorce, a new grandchild, or the sale of a property can all make old instructions obsolete. Trusts carry their own version of this problem. A trust controls assets that have been retitled into its name or otherwise properly directed to the trust, and accounts opened or inherited after the trust was created are easy to leave out by accident.

We see this play out in ordinary, human ways. A will written before a second marriage still names a first spouse. A trust drafted when the kids were young never accounted for a grandchild who wasn't born yet, or never picked up a brokerage account opened years later. A named executor or trustee has since passed away, and nobody updated the paperwork.

The Part That Quietly Overrides Both

Here's the piece that catches people off guard. Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other named accounts are legally binding on their own, and generally determine how those assets are distributed, regardless of what your will says. If your IRA still lists an ex-spouse or a beneficiary who passed away years ago, the beneficiary designation may still control how the account is distributed, regardless of what your other documents state.

This isn't a rare case. Beneficiary designations are one of the most commonly overlooked pieces of an estate plan, since they're easy to set once during a rushed account opening and just as easy to forget for years afterward. That makes them one of the simplest fixes available, and also one of the most often missed.

How We Help You Catch This

This is exactly the kind of gap we look for when working together. When we meet with clients, we review existing wills and trusts from a financial planning perspective, comparing what the documents say with your current family situation, your accounts, and the plan we've built together. That includes checking whether a trust actually holds the accounts it's supposed to, not just what the trust document says on paper. We also check that beneficiary designations on your IRAs, retirement plans, and insurance policies actually match your intentions, not an old form filled out years ago.

We're not attorneys, and drafting or amending a will or trust is a job for your estate planning attorney. Where we add value is in the review itself. We know what to look for and what questions to ask, and we can help identify potential gaps, an unfunded trust, or an outdated designation before it becomes a problem for your family. If something needs a formal update, we'll refer you to an estate planning attorney and stay involved to help ensure the change is carried through.

Think of us as your guide through these documents. You don't need to be the one who remembers every detail of a will or trust you signed a decade ago. That's what we're here for.

If it's been a while since you've actually read your own wills and trusts, that's worth a conversation. A quick review now is a lot easier than a surprise for your family later. 

Reach out to your financial advisor at KWB Wealth or click HERE to schedule a review of your wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations. We'll walk through your documents together and help make sure everything still points where you want it to.

~ Steve Gormley

Sources: Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report, survey of 5,000 U.S. adults conducted by Talker Research January 28–February 5, 2026; Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study, online survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults conducted in partnership with YouGov January 3–6, 2025. Third-party information is believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy or completeness

This material is for informational purposes only and is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult your tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.