Beneficiary Education: Helping Estate Plans Work Over Time
For advisers, one of the important questions is what beneficiaries will need to understand once they begin interacting with the structures the plan has created.
A technically sophisticated plan still has to be understood and used by the people affected by it. Beneficiaries who have little preparation for trusts, fiduciary discretion, distribution standards, governance structures, or long-term stewardship may interpret ordinary features of the plan in ways the client never intended.
A trustee exercising appropriate discretion may appear arbitrary. Protective provisions may feel controlling. Family members may struggle to understand why assets are held in trust or why particular fiduciaries have authority.
These are implementation issues as much as communication issues.
Beneficiary education can help translate legal and financial structures into practical understanding. It can also give estate planning attorneys, trustees, wealth advisers, and family offices a way to strengthen implementation before misunderstandings become entrenched.
In this article, Martin Shenkman and I examine what beneficiaries may need to learn, how education can begin without full financial disclosure, and how advisers can help make beneficiary preparation an intentional part of the planning process.
Supporting Beneficiary Education
Advisers may recognize the need for beneficiary education without wanting to become the primary educator or facilitator themselves.
I work with estate planning attorneys, trustees, wealth advisers, and family offices to help families prepare beneficiaries for the roles, decisions, and responsibilities that come with complex planning structures. I am a Certified Wealth Education Facilitator through Tamarind Learning and can work alongside the existing advisory team to design or facilitate a process suited to the family.
The goal is to strengthen the family’s understanding while keeping the adviser relationship intact.
If beneficiary education has become relevant for one of your client families, I would be glad to discuss how I might support the process ... feel free to contact me.
*This article was originally published in the October 2026 issue of Estate Planning, a Thomson Reuters journal. The citation for the article is 53 Est. Pln. 20 (October 2026).