Beneficiaries vs Wills in Michigan | Das Law

Beneficiaries vs. Wills in Michigan: The One Page Review That Can Prevent a Family Mess

A family sits at the kitchen table after the funeral, doing what families do when they are exhausted and sad.

Someone opens the will. Someone reads it out loud. Everyone nods, because it is clear. Then the bank calls, or the retirement account paperwork shows up, and the biggest asset does not follow the will at all. It goes to someone else.

Sometimes it is an ex spouse. Sometimes it is a parent who is meant to move away financially. Sometimes it is a sibling who was supposed to receive a small share, and now receives the whole account. Nobody planned that. Nobody wanted that. Yet it happens, because a will does not control everything.

In Michigan, many assets pass outside probate through a beneficiary designation or another transfer on death tool, and those instructions are often treated as separate from your will. Michigan law even recognizes many transfer on death provisions as nontestamentary, meaning they operate outside the formal will requirements. 

The good news is that preventing this kind of surprise does not require a complicated spreadsheet.

For most families, it starts with a simple one page review. It is a quick habit that can prevent years of confusion, and it can save relationships when emotions are already stretched thin.

This article is general information, not legal advice. A Michigan estate planning attorney can help you apply this to your situation.

Why Your Will Does Not Control Everything in Michigan

Most people assume the will is the boss. It feels like the final word, and emotionally, it should be. Legally, it is only the final word for probate assets, which are assets owned in your name alone with no beneficiary designation, and no automatic transfer method built in.

A lot of modern wealth is not structured that way. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and many bank or brokerage accounts are controlled by a contract with the institution. You fill out a beneficiary form, and the institution pays the named beneficiary when you die. Many accounts also allow payable on death or transfer on death designations that move the asset directly to the beneficiary without court involvement. 

Michigan law supports this separation. MCL 700.6101 states that a provision for a nonprobate transfer on death in a wide range of instruments, including insurance policies, account agreements, retirement plans, and other written instruments, is nontestamentary. In plain language, that means these transfers do not operate through your will. 

This is why financial publications often warn people that beneficiary designations can supersede instructions in a will or living trust, and why keeping them updated is critical. 

Here is the simplest way to remember it.

Your will controls what is left over after other transfer rules have already done their work. If your largest assets have beneficiary forms, joint ownership, or transfer on death features, then your estate plan lives or dies on whether those features match your intent.

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The One Page Review That Prevents the Mess

You can do this review on a single sheet of paper. You do not need account numbers. You do not need exact balances. You need a clear list of what you own, and what instruction controls each asset.

Step 1, list your big buckets

Write down the categories that apply to you:

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• Real estate
• Bank accounts
• Brokerage accounts
• Retirement accounts, like a 401(k) or IRA
• Life insurance
• Vehicles
• Business interests
• Personal property, including valuables and heirlooms
• Digital assets, like photos, subscriptions, and important online accounts

If you are married, include whether an asset is owned by one spouse or jointly. If you have a trust, include whether the asset is titled in the trust.

Step 2, write what controls each asset

Next to each bucket, write one of these control types:

• Will
• Trust
• Beneficiary designation
• Joint ownership with survivorship
• Payable on death or transfer on death designation
• Other transfer on death tool
• This is where clarity shows up fast.

If you have a retirement account with a beneficiary designation, then the beneficiary form controls who gets it, not the will. That fits the broader rule that nonprobate transfer on death provisions operate outside the will. 

If you have a bank account with a payable on death designation, the named beneficiary can often claim funds directly from the bank without probate. 

If your home is titled jointly with rights of survivorship, it may transfer to the surviving joint owner outside probate, depending on the exact titling.

The purpose of this step is not to judge any method as good or bad. The purpose is to see what is truly steering the ship.

Step 3, confirm primary and contingent beneficiaries

Once you identify which assets transfer by beneficiary form, you make a short confirmation.

• Who is the primary beneficiary?
• Who is the contingent beneficiary?
• Percentages, if more than one beneficiary.

A lot of families skip contingent beneficiaries. That is where problems begin.

Kiplinger notes that if you do not name a beneficiary, or if the beneficiary predeceases you and you do not update it, proceeds may be paid to your estate, which can pull the asset into probate. 

Other sources also explain that a failed beneficiary designation can cause an account to become part of the probate estate, or it may be replaced by the institution’s default provision, depending on the account agreement. Either result can produce outcomes you did not intend. 

This is why the one page review is so powerful.

It turns “I think we handled that” into “I can see exactly what happens.”

The Five Most Common Ways Beneficiaries Get Messy

Most beneficiary problems are not created by bad intentions.

They are created by life moving faster than paperwork.

1. Divorce and old designations

Divorce is one of the biggest red flags for beneficiary designations.

People update their will, because it feels like the main document, but they forget the retirement account form. If the ex spouse is still listed, the institution may pay the ex spouse, even if your will says something else. That is the exact kind of surprise families experience at the worst moment.

2. Second marriages and blended families

Blended families need extra coordination.

A common intention is, “I want my spouse cared for, and then I want what is left to go to my kids.” Beneficiary forms do not always support that intention without careful planning.

If you name your spouse outright on every account, the spouse may receive everything, and there may be no legal obligation to pass anything to your children later. If you name your children outright, your spouse may be left without support. This is where trusts and coordinated beneficiary designations can make the plan match the people.

3. Naming minors directly

A minor cannot usually receive and manage inherited funds the way an adult can.

If a child is named directly as a beneficiary on a life insurance policy or account, a court process may be needed to appoint someone to manage the funds until the child reaches adulthood. Even if the amount is not large, it can create delay, cost, and stress.

Many parents intend for money to be used for the child over time, not handed to an eighteen year old in a lump sum. A trust plan can help, but only if the beneficiary designations point to the right structure.

4. No contingent beneficiary, or the beneficiary has died

This is more common than people think. Sometimes the beneficiary died years ago. Sometimes the relationship changes. Sometimes the designation was left blank. When there is no clear living beneficiary, the institution may default to its internal rules or pay the proceeds to the estate, which can create probate involvement and timing delays. 

5. The trust exists, but the forms point somewhere else

This one hurts, because it feels like you did the work and still got burned.

You create a trust to control timing and protect beneficiaries. Then the largest account names an individual directly, or names the estate, or names a prior trust, and the plan becomes fragmented.

Financial guidance often emphasizes that beneficiary designations should be reviewed as part of your overall estate plan, because they are a key lever that can override your other documents. 

That is what coordination really means. Your documents should tell the same story.

How Das Law Helps You Align the Paperwork With Your People

Most families do not need more documents.

They need the documents and forms they already have to agree with each other.

That is where a firm like Das Law can help. David Das can walk through your one page review with you, identify which assets are controlled by beneficiary forms or nonprobate transfer tools, and then help you align those designations with your will or trust plan, based on what you actually want to happen.

Here are a few examples of what alignment can look like. If your plan is simple and you want fast transfers, it might mean ensuring every retirement account and life insurance policy has the correct primary and contingent beneficiaries, with clear percentages, and that the will covers the remaining probate assets.

If your plan involves minor children, a child with special needs, or a beneficiary who needs protection, it may mean naming a trust as beneficiary in the right way, so the money flows into the structure that can manage it responsibly.

If your plan involves a second marriage, it may mean using a trust strategy that supports a spouse while preserving the eventual inheritance for children, then adjusting beneficiary designations so they support that strategy instead of undermining it.

The key is that the “right answer” depends on your family and your values.

The wrong answer is leaving it to default settings and old paperwork.

The Calm Finish Line

If you want a simple way to reduce risk, do the one page review once a year, and every time something major happens.

A marriage. A divorce. A birth. A death. A move. A new home. A new job with a new retirement plan.

Then ask one question that cuts through the noise.

If I died this month, would my beneficiary forms and my will tell the same story.

If you are not sure, Das Law can help you get to a clear answer. Schedule a beneficiary and estate plan review with David Das, and bring your latest statements and existing documents. The goal is not to create paperwork for the sake of paperwork. 

The goal is to prevent the kind of family mess that starts with, “But the will said,” and ends with relationships strained for years.