What You Leave Behind Deserves a Plan, Not a Default

Legacy planning for retirement is one of the most personal conversations we have with clients — and one of the most overlooked. Most people have a general sense of what they want to leave behind. Few have a structure in place to make sure it actually happens that way.

Your Legacy Is a Planning Decision, Not an Automatic Outcome

When you pass away without a deliberate legacy plan, your assets don't simply flow to the people you intended. They follow the rules — beneficiary designations on file, account titling, default inheritance laws — regardless of what you actually wanted. Legacy planning is the process of reviewing those details and making intentional decisions before the defaults take over.

What Legacy Planning Covers — and What It Doesn't

Legacy planning and estate planning are related, but they're not the same thing. Estate planning is the legal layer: wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. That work belongs with your estate attorney.

 

Legacy planning is the financial layer — and that's where we work with you. We look at which accounts you hold, how they're titled, who is named as beneficiary, and how each of those decisions affects what your heirs actually receive. We then coordinate with your estate attorney so the financial structure and the legal documents are working in the same direction.

 

Our legacy planning advisory work covers:

 

  • Beneficiary designation review across all account types
  • Account titling and how it affects asset transfer
  • Inherited IRA rules for non-spouse heirs under current law
  • Roth conversions as a tax-efficient legacy strategy
  • Qualified Charitable Distributions for charitably inclined clients
  • Coordination with your estate attorney on the legal layer

Beneficiary Designation Review

Most people set beneficiaries when they open an account and never revisit them. A divorce, a death in the family, or the birth of a grandchild can make an old designation the wrong one. We review every account on file to confirm your named beneficiaries reflect your current wishes.

Inherited IRA Rules for Non-Spouse Heirs

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA are now required to withdraw the full balance within 10 years. This rule has significant tax implications for your heirs — and it changes how some clients think about which assets to leave and in what form. Understanding this rule is a core part of building a sound inheritance plan.

Roth Conversions as a Legacy Tool

A Roth IRA is one of the most tax-efficient assets you can pass to your heirs. Because qualified withdrawals from a Roth are tax-free, your beneficiaries inherit the account without the ordinary income tax burden that comes with a traditional IRA. For clients with legacy goals, a Roth conversion strategy can shift assets from a taxable inheritance into a tax-free one — sometimes over several years to manage the conversion tax efficiently.

 

We cover this in detail on our Roth conversions page. It's worth reading if leaving a tax-efficient inheritance is a priority for you.

Qualified Charitable Distributions

If charitable giving is part of your legacy, a Qualified Charitable Distribution — or QCD — allows you to transfer up to $105,000 per year directly from your IRA to a qualified charity. The distribution counts toward your required minimum distribution and is excluded from your taxable income. For clients who want to give intentionally, this is one of the most tax-efficient tools available.

Estate Planning Coordination

We don't draft legal documents — but we work closely alongside the attorneys who do. Our role is to make sure the financial structure of your plan aligns with the legal documents your estate attorney prepares. When those two layers are designed together, your legacy plan holds. When they're designed separately, gaps appear. We help close those gaps.

 

For clients who need support on the legal coordination side, we cover that process in more detail on our estate planning coordination page.

What Goes to Your Family — and What Goes to Taxes — Is a Planning Decision

One of the most common concerns we hear from clients thinking about their legacy is that taxes will take a significant portion of what they leave behind. That concern is often valid. But it's also addressable.

 

The tax burden your heirs inherit alongside your assets isn't fixed. Strategies like Roth conversions, QCDs, and account titling decisions can shift the outcome meaningfully. The key is making those decisions while you're still in a position to act on them — not leaving them for your heirs to navigate after the fact.

Legacy Planning Starts With What You Value

Before we look at account structures or tax strategies, we start with a simpler question: what do you actually want your money to do after you're gone?

 

Some clients want to prioritize specific family members. Others want to leave something to a cause they've supported for years. Some want to divide assets equally among children; others want to account for different financial circumstances. There's no default answer — and that's exactly the point. Your legacy plan should reflect your values, not a form you filled out thirty years ago.

 

Once we understand what matters to you, we build the financial structure around that intention.

How We Approach Legacy Planning at Xexis

We Start With a Full Account Review

We look at every account you hold — IRAs, 401(k)s, taxable accounts, annuities — and assess how each one is titled, who is named as beneficiary, and how it will transfer at death. This review often surfaces gaps that clients didn't know existed.

We Model the Tax Impact on Your Heirs

We analyze what your current account structure means for your heirs from a tax standpoint. If a large traditional IRA is your primary legacy asset, we walk through what the 10-year distribution rule means in practice — and whether a Roth conversion strategy changes the picture.

We Build a Strategy Around Your Goals

With a clear picture of your accounts and your intentions, we develop a legacy strategy that aligns the two. This may involve repositioning assets, adjusting beneficiary designations, coordinating a Roth conversion schedule, or structuring charitable giving through QCDs.

We Coordinate With Your Attorney

If you have an estate attorney, we work alongside them to make sure the financial plan and the legal documents are consistent. If you don't have one, we can point you in the right direction.

We Review the Plan as Your Life Changes

A legacy plan isn't a one-time document. Family circumstances change. Tax laws change. Account balances shift. We revisit your legacy strategy as part of our ongoing planning relationship to keep it current.

Common Questions About Legacy Planning in Retirement

  • What is legacy planning in retirement?

    Legacy planning is the process of deciding — deliberately — what happens to your assets after you pass away. It covers beneficiary designations, account titling, inherited IRA rules, Roth conversion strategy, and charitable giving structures. The goal is to ensure your wealth transfers according to your intentions, not according to whatever defaults are on file.

  • Does retirement planning include leaving money to my heirs?

    It can and should, if that's a priority for you. At Xexis, legacy planning is part of a comprehensive retirement plan — not a separate conversation. We look at how your income, tax, and withdrawal strategy interact with your legacy goals and build a plan that addresses all of them together.

  • How do I create a financial legacy plan?

    The process starts with a review of your current accounts, beneficiary designations, and titling structures. From there, we assess the tax implications for your heirs and identify strategies — such as Roth conversions or charitable giving through QCDs — that can improve the outcome. We then build a written strategy and coordinate with your estate attorney on the legal layer.

  • What is the 10-year rule for inherited IRAs?

    Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit a traditional IRA are required to withdraw the full balance within 10 years of the original owner's death. Depending on your heir's income level, this can create a significant tax burden. Planning around this rule — including the potential use of Roth conversions — is a core part of legacy planning for clients with substantial IRA balances.

  • How is legacy planning different from estate planning?

    Estate planning covers the legal documents — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. Legacy planning covers the financial structure: which accounts transfer, in what form, to whom, and with what tax consequences. The two should work together, which is why we coordinate with your estate attorney as part of our process.

Your Legacy Deserves More Than a Default

Most people don't choose what happens to their money after they're gone — they accept whatever the default rules produce. A retirement legacy plan gives you the ability to make that decision yourself, with clarity about what your heirs will receive and how.

 

If you're ready to have that conversation, we're ready to start it with you.