Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New York

Re: Question on a Will

No; unless elsewhere in the Will there is language that revokes the beneficiary designations applicable to the separate accounts.

Re: Question on a Will

Any asset with some beneficiary designation or joint ownership follows the asset designation, even if the Will states to the contrary. Thus, joint assets, or assets designating a beneficiary on death, are handled outside the Will. If this is not your desire, I suggest changing the beneficiary designation either to your estate, or just having assets in your own name, although this might not be best overall. You could consider creating a living trust, re-registereing all assets to the trust name, and making the trust the named beneficiary. The trust document would suuplement your Will as to the assets registered in the trust's name. One final comment, I think the Will (and the trust document if you go that route) should be revised to state that if a child should predecease you, the share of the child who predeceases would go to their issue, per stirpes. This allows a grandchild to inherit if their parent should predecease you, which is a traditional way of doing things. If you do not want this, you should still clarify the Will language to provide that if a child predeceases you, his/her share only goes to the remaining children, and grandchildren only get if all of your children have predeceased you.