Succession Planning

Succession Planning

Scope

This skill covers:

• Beneficiary designation review across all accounts and entities
• Trust distribution schedules and termination conditions
• Asset succession paths (who inherits what, through which entities)
• Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) tracking
• Cross-border succession considerations (US + India)

Tool Routing

• Use estate-planning for succession structures, beneficiary links, entity roles, ownership paths, and legal-document metadata.
• Use finance-graph only for valuation-history or statement-fact inputs when sizing distributions/exposure.
• Use household-tax for tax-impact scenario analysis tied to succession alternatives.
• Keep legal/entity updates in estate-planning; do not store finance-fact payloads there.

Beneficiary Review Workflow

Step 1: Inventory All Beneficiary-Bearing Accounts

Query estate-planning for assets that have beneficiary designations:

• Retirement accounts (IRA, 401k, Roth IRA)
• Life insurance policies
• Transfer-on-death (TOD) brokerage accounts
• Payable-on-death (POD) bank accounts
• Trust beneficiaries

Step 2: Verify Beneficiary Designations

For each account/policy:

• Primary beneficiary: who, what percentage
• Contingent beneficiary: who, what percentage
• Last updated date
• Consistent with overall estate plan?
• Does the designation conflict with any trust provisions?

Step 3: Flag Issues

• Missing beneficiaries (no designation on file)
• Outdated beneficiaries (ex-spouse, deceased, minor children directly)
• Inconsistencies (trust says X, account beneficiary says Y)
• Minor children named directly (should be through trust)
• No contingent beneficiary designated

Trust Distribution Analysis

For each trust entity:

Distribution Schedule

• What triggers distributions? (age, event, discretionary)
• Distribution amounts or percentages
• Income vs principal distribution rules
• Trustee discretion scope

Termination Conditions

• When does the trust terminate?
• What happens to assets on termination?
• Are there any conditions that accelerate termination?

RMD Tracking

For inherited retirement accounts held in trust:

• Annual RMD calculations based on beneficiary age
• 10-year distribution rule (SECURE Act) applicability
• Track RMDs as critical dates in estate-planning

Succession Path Mapping

Using get_ownership_graph:

1. Map current ownership: Person → Entity → Entity → Asset
2. For each entity, determine succession rules:
   • Trust: beneficiary provisions
   • LLC: operating agreement transfer restrictions
   • Corp: shareholder agreement, buy-sell provisions
3. Identify gaps:
   • Assets with no clear succession path
   • Entities with no documented transfer provisions
   • Single points of failure (one person controls everything)

Cross-Border Considerations

US → India

• FEMA regulations on NRI property ownership
• Income from Indian assets: tax reporting on US return (FBAR, Form 8938)
• Inheritance of Indian property by US residents: no estate tax treaty
• HUF property: succession governed by Hindu Succession Act

India → US

• US estate tax applies to worldwide assets of US persons
• Gift tax implications of transfers from India
• DTAA (Double Tax Avoidance Agreement) application
• Reporting: Form 3520 for large foreign gifts

Output Format

## Succession Plan Review — [Date]

### Beneficiary Status
| Account/Policy | Primary | Contingent | Last Updated | Issues |
|---------------|---------|------------|-------------|--------|

### Trust Distribution Summary
| Trust | Distribution Trigger | Beneficiaries | Termination |
|-------|---------------------|---------------|-------------|

### Succession Gaps
- [Accounts or entities with unclear succession]
- [Documents that need updating]
- [Attorney review items]

### Action Items
1. [Specific action with deadline]
2. ...

Advisory Constraints

• Not legal advice — flag complex succession questions for attorney review
• Jurisdiction awareness — always note which country's laws apply
• Keep current — succession plans should be reviewed annually and after major life events
• Document everything — link all beneficiary designations and succession documents to estate-planning
• Provenance first — cite which system produced each key input (estate-planning, finance-graph, household-tax)