As a retired military member in Colorado, your financial picture looks different from most civilians. You have a pension, survivor benefits and possibly assets built across multiple duty stations. Standard estate plans are not built with any of that in mind. That is why understanding how these pieces fit together is where a solid plan begins.
Your military pension and survivor benefits have their own rules
Your pension does not pass through a will or trust. It ends when you die unless you signed up for the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) at retirement, which continues a monthly payment to your surviving spouse or eligible dependents. The SBP operates separately from everything else in your estate plan, so you need to plan your other assets around what it covers and what it does not.
Your spouse may now receive both SBP and DIC payments in full
As of January 2023, surviving spouses no longer have to choose between SBP payments and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC). If your spouse qualifies for both, they can receive the full amount of each. If your estate plan was drafted before this change, it is worth a review.
The will your military attorney drafted may not be enough
Military legal assistance helps you write a will, but that is typically where it stops. A will alone still goes through probate court when you die, which takes time and costs money. It also does not coordinate your military benefits with your other assets like your home and bank accounts. A civilian estate planning attorney can build a more complete plan that does both.
Your military career may complicate probate
If you owned property in multiple states during your service, your family could face a separate probate process in each of those states when you pass. That means more time, more legal costs and more stress for the people you are leaving behind.
A revocable living trust solves this by passing your assets directly to your beneficiaries without going through probate in any state. It also puts a plan in place for managing your assets if you become incapacitated before you die.
An outdated TSP designation can override your estate plan
Your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) passes to beneficiaries through a separate designation on file, not through your will or trust. If that designation is outdated, your TSP could pass to the wrong person regardless of what your other documents say. It is a small update that most people put off, and one that can make a significant difference.
Your service built something worth protecting
You spent years making sure others were taken care of. Now it is time to make sure your family is too. An estate planning lawyer in Colorado who understands military benefits can review what you have, fill the gaps and build a plan that works for your family on every front.