By Rudy Blanchard, CFP®, CIMA®, APMA, MSM
When someone sits down with me for a portfolio review, I ask to see their beneficiary forms along with their statements. More often than you’d expect, those forms haven’t changed since the account was opened, and the will in the file drawer is sometimes older than the grandchildren it ought to mention. The third week of October is National Estate Planning Awareness Week, a good time to walk through the basics.
For most families, the paperwork isn’t the hard part of estate planning in Louisiana. The harder part is about the people you’d leave behind: a spouse who has never logged in to the accounts, or grown children who may not agree on what happens to the house. A clear plan lets you answer those questions yourself while the choices are still yours to make.
The plan itself starts with four core documents: a will, a power of attorney (called a mandate here), healthcare directives, and current beneficiary designations. Louisiana’s civil law system also adds rules, like forced heirship, that can trip up a plan written for another state.
I’m not an attorney, and Regatta doesn’t draft legal documents. My goal is to help you understand what you have before you meet with one.
Why Is Estate Planning in Louisiana Different?
Louisiana’s laws on property and inheritance grew out of the civil law tradition of France and Spain, while the other 49 states follow English common law. A few terms come up in nearly every Louisiana plan:
- Succession: Louisiana’s word for probate, the court process that settles an estate.
- Community property: Most property a couple acquires during the marriage belongs to both spouses equally, no matter whose name is on the account.
- Forced heirship: Louisiana is the only state that requires parents to leave a share of their estate to certain children. Under Article 1493 of the Louisiana Civil Code, forced heirs are children who are 23 or younger when the parent dies, or children of any age who are permanently unable to care for themselves. If your children are grown and healthy, it likely won’t apply to you, though it may if you have a child with a disability.
- Usufruct: The right to use property and collect its income without owning it. A surviving spouse may keep a usufruct over the late spouse’s share of the home while the children own that share.
What if You’re in a Second Marriage?
Usufruct deserves extra attention in blended families. Consider a fictional couple in Metairie, each with children from a first marriage. If the husband dies first, his wife may keep the right to live in the house for years, while his children own his share of it but can’t use it. Both sides end up waiting on each other. If you’ve remarried, ask your attorney how your plan handles this before it becomes your family’s problem.
What Documents Does Every Louisiana Family Need?
1. A Will (Called a Testament)
Your will is the one place your family gets to hear, in your own words, what you wanted. Louisiana recognizes a notarial testament, signed before a notary and two witnesses, and an olographic testament, written entirely in your own handwriting and then dated and signed. If yours was signed in another state, it may still be valid here, but a Louisiana estate attorney should review it.
2. A Power of Attorney (Called a Mandate)
A mandate names the person who can handle your bills and accounts if you’re unable to. Without one, your family may have to ask a court for that authority through a process called interdiction. From my side of the desk, a mandate also gives your spouse or adult child a clear way to work with us on your accounts if you’re ever incapacitated.
3. Healthcare Directives
These are the documents nobody wants to think about, and the ones that spare your family from guessing. A living will, which Louisiana law calls a declaration, states your wishes about life-sustaining treatment. A healthcare power of attorney names the person who speaks with your doctors when you can’t.
4. Beneficiary Designations
This is the one I see go wrong most often, and for many families it covers a large share of what they’ve saved. Your 401(k), IRA, annuities, and life insurance pass to whoever is named on the beneficiary form. They don’t follow your will.
Take a hypothetical engineer in Baton Rouge who named his mother as the beneficiary of his 401(k) when he started at the plant. Twenty years later he’s married with children, and his updated will leaves everything to his wife. The 401(k) would still go to his mother. (This is a hypothetical example for illustration only.)
What I Check in a Beneficiary Review
When I go through these forms with a client, here’s what I’m looking for:
- A backup beneficiary, called a contingent beneficiary, in case your first choice dies before you do.
- Names that no longer fit your family, such as a former spouse or a child who wasn’t born yet when you signed.
- Forms signed before a marriage or divorce that nobody went back to.
- Accounts still titled in both names after a spouse has passed.
- For plant and refinery employees, the survivor option on your pension. In many plans that choice can’t be changed once payments begin, so it deserves the same care as your will.
Consider a Revocable Living Trust
If you own a camp in Mississippi or a condo in Florida, ask your attorney about a revocable trust. It can let some assets pass without going through succession, though it adds cost and upkeep that many families may not need.
Where Should You Keep Your Estate Documents?
Anyone who evacuated for Katrina or Ida knows how fast paper can disappear. A Louisiana succession generally calls for the original will, so know exactly where yours is. If it’s at home, keep it in a fireproof, waterproof box you can grab on the way out of town. Store scanned copies in password-protected cloud storage, and make sure your spouse knows where everything is and who to call first.
Where Does a Financial Advisor Fit in Estate Planning?
When your attorney finishes your will, you shouldn’t have to wonder whether your accounts match it. My job is to go through each beneficiary form and account title with you, line by line, and check that the names on file are the people you’d choose today. We coordinate with your attorney and CPA as part of our financial planning services, and our process keeps it going, because a financial plan isn’t a document you file away. If you’re also settling on a retirement date, our retirement readiness checklist pairs well with this.
Because we’re fee-only and don’t earn commissions, a beneficiary review with us isn’t a setup for selling you a life insurance policy or an annuity.
And if the day comes when you lose your spouse, you’ll call the same person who manages your portfolio, someone who already knows your family and your accounts. We’ll help update beneficiaries and retitle accounts while you take care of everything else.
Where Should You Start?
If it’s been a few years since you looked at any of this, pull your will out of the drawer this month and set it next to your beneficiary forms and pension paperwork. Read them side by side and ask yourself, “Do these still describe the family I have today?”
If you’d like a second set of eyes on the answer, schedule a consultation online with our team in Metairie or Baton Rouge. At Regatta Research, we prepare a complimentary written financial plan for the families we meet with, with no obligation attached to that first meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a will from another state valid in Louisiana?
Usually, yes. Louisiana honors a will that was properly signed under the law of the state where you signed it or where you lived. Its instructions still have to work within Louisiana rules like forced heirship and community property, so have a Louisiana estate attorney review it if you’ve moved here since signing it.
Can I leave everything to my spouse in Louisiana?
Often, but not always. If you have a child who is 23 or younger, or a child of any age who is permanently unable to care for themselves, that child is a forced heir and is entitled to a share of your estate. An attorney can explain options, such as leaving your spouse a usufruct over that share. If you’d like to connect with our team, give us a call anytime.
Do beneficiary designations override a will in Louisiana?
Yes. An account with a named beneficiary, such as a 401(k), IRA, or life insurance policy, passes to the person on the form regardless of what your will says. That’s why reviewing those forms after a marriage, divorce, birth, or death in the family is as important as updating the will itself.
What happens if you die without a will in Louisiana?
Louisiana’s intestate succession rules decide who inherits, so state law makes the choices you didn’t. If you have children, your half of the community property generally goes to them, and your surviving spouse keeps a usufruct over it that can end if they remarry. If you have no children, your spouse generally inherits your half.
About Rudy
Rudy Blanchard has served as a Portfolio Manager and Market Strategist at Regatta Research & Money Management in Metairie, Louisiana, since 2000, where he designs, manages, and adjusts investment portfolios for individual and institutional clients as an Investment Advisor Representative. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst® designation from the Investments & Wealth Institute, which includes advanced portfolio construction coursework through the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Regatta Research and Money Management is a Registered Investment Adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation or offer of services.
