Estate & legacy planning review
An estate and legacy planning review is a free check that the life insurance funding your plan still matches the plan. A licensed professional reads the coverage, ownership, beneficiaries, and funding alongside your attorney and tax professional. This is not legal or tax advice — it makes sure the policy still does its part.
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Who this is for
When the policy and the plan need to agree.
Estate plans are built around a policy doing a specific job. Years pass, life shifts, and the two can drift apart. This review is for the moments when you want to be sure they still line up — before it matters.
A trust-owned policy
Coverage held inside an ILIT, and you want to confirm the ownership and beneficiary lines still match what your attorney set up.
Leaving a legacy gift
A set amount earmarked for children, grandchildren, or a cause — and you want to be sure the death benefit still hits that number.
A family business in the plan
Coverage meant to keep a business whole or equalize an inheritance between the child who runs it and the ones who do not.
An older permanent policy
Whole life or universal life bought years ago for estate purposes, and you are not sure it is still funded to last a lifetime.
Liquidity for estate costs
You want cash on hand for settlement and final expenses so other assets pass to heirs intact instead of being sold quickly.
A plan that has aged
The estate documents were written a while back, life has moved on, and you want the insurance piece checked against where things stand today.
Not sure the policy still fits your plan? A licensed professional will read it against your plan and tell you plainly. Free, no obligation.
Call (888) 959-0710What we check
Six things we read against your plan.
We look at the insurance side only — and we keep every legal and tax call where it belongs, with your advisors. Here is what a licensed professional reads.
Coverage still sized to the goal
Plans get drawn up around a number — a legacy gift, an equal split between heirs, the cost of keeping a family business intact. We check whether the death benefit still matches the figure your plan was built on.
Ownership and ILIT fit
Some plans hold the policy inside an irrevocable life insurance trust (an ILIT) — a trust that owns the policy so the payout sits outside your taxable estate. We confirm the ownership on file matches what your attorney set up, at a high level.
Beneficiary designations
The beneficiary form controls the money, not the will. We read who is named — a person, the trust, your estate — and flag anything that no longer lines up with the plan or a life change.
A permanent policy funded to last
Legacy plans usually lean on permanent coverage meant to stay in force for life. We benchmark whether the funding still supports that, so the policy does not quietly lapse before it is ever needed.
Liquidity for estate costs
Estates carry costs — final expenses, settlement, sometimes taxes. We look at whether the policy gives your family cash at the right time, so other assets can pass intact instead of being sold in a hurry.
What changed since the plan was written
A new marriage, a sold property, a grown business, a moved-to state. We note what is different now and hand you a clean list to take back to your attorney and tax professional.
Whether the death benefit lands inside or outside your taxable estate turns on who owns the policy, and on the federal thresholds the IRS publishes for estate tax. Your tax professional applies those to your numbers — we make sure the ownership on file is read correctly first.
How it works
Three steps, alongside your advisors.
The whole thing is built to fit around the people already guiding your plan. We read the policy, you keep the legal and tax decisions with your attorney and tax pro.
Bring us the policy and the plan
Send the policy — or just the carrier name — plus whatever your attorney drew up. A licensed professional reads both together so the coverage and the plan are looked at as one picture, not two.
We check the fit, in plain English
On one call we walk through coverage, ownership, beneficiaries, and funding. You get a clear read on where the policy still matches the plan and where something has drifted — no jargon, no pressure.
You take it to your advisors
We hand you a short, written list of anything worth a second look. Your attorney and tax professional make the legal and tax calls; if a coverage change is the right move, we handle that side with the carrier.
The honest part
We stay in our lane, on purpose.
Here is the honest version: estate and legacy work is a team sport, and the insurance is one player on it. Your attorney handles the trusts, the wills, the legal structure. Your tax professional handles the tax. We handle one question — is the policy still doing the job the plan assumes it is doing.
Plenty of the policies we read still fit the plan perfectly. When that is the answer, we say so and you keep what you have. We would rather send you back to your advisors with “the coverage checks out” than invent a reason to change it.
Your attorney drew up the plan. Our job is simply to confirm the policy behind it still matches — and to tell you when it already does. That is a short conversation, and it is free.
Worth reading next
Pieces of the same picture.
An estate plan touches a few corners of your coverage at once. These walk through the parts that come up most — who the money goes to, and the kind of policy built to last a lifetime.
- Start with the free policy review if you want the full check-up, not just the estate angle.
- The beneficiary designation controls the money — see how to check and update yours.
- How whole life insurance works, since legacy plans often lean on permanent coverage.
Free · no obligation · Mon-Sat · 10am-9pm
- Whether the death benefit still matches the legacy goal
- If the ownership on file matches the trust your attorney set up
- Whether the beneficiary designations still hold up
- If a permanent policy is funded to last a lifetime
Straight answers
Estate planning questions, answered.
By Braxton Mondell, licensed in all 50 states · Updated June 2026
01Is an estate and legacy planning review legal or tax advice?
No. This review is not legal or tax advice. We read the life insurance that funds your plan and tell you plainly whether the coverage, ownership, beneficiaries, and funding still match it. The legal and tax decisions stay with your estate attorney and tax professional — we coordinate with them, we do not replace them.
02What is an ILIT, and do I need one?
An ILIT is an irrevocable life insurance trust — a trust that owns the policy so the death benefit can sit outside your taxable estate. Whether one fits your situation is a question for your estate attorney. In a review, we simply confirm whether the ownership and beneficiary designations on file match the trust your attorney already set up.
03Will life insurance be part of my taxable estate?
It depends on who owns the policy. If you own it at death, the death benefit is generally counted in your estate; if a trust or another party owns it, it often is not. The current federal estate-tax thresholds are published by the IRS, and your tax professional applies them to your numbers. Our job is to read the ownership so you can have that conversation with the right facts.
04Do you work directly with my attorney and tax professional?
Yes — that is the point. We are happy to share what we find with your attorney and tax professional so everyone is working from the same picture. They handle the legal documents and the tax planning; we handle the policy itself — the coverage amount, the funding, and any change the carrier needs to make.
05What if the policy already matches the plan?
Then we tell you to keep it exactly as it is. A review that ends in “your coverage still fits the plan” is a successful review. There is no obligation, and we would rather confirm you are in good shape than create work that does not need doing.
06What do I need to have ready for the call?
The policy documents help, but the carrier name is enough to start — we can request the details with you on the line. If you have your estate documents handy, even a summary, that lets us check the coverage against the plan in one sitting.
This page is educational and is not tax or legal advice — coordinate with your attorney and tax professional on the legal and tax pieces of your plan. If changes to coverage are appropriate, they are completed through licensed insurance professionals. Estate-tax thresholds and rules change; confirm the current figures with the IRS and your tax pro.
Make sure the policy still fits the plan.
Grab the policy — or just the carrier name — and call. A licensed professional will check it against your estate plan and tell you plainly, alongside your attorney and tax professional.