succession-planning

name	succession-planning
description	Beneficiary review, distribution schedules, trust termination conditions, and succession planning across US and India jurisdictions. Use when reviewing estate plans, updating beneficiary designations, or planning asset transfers.

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• Outdated beneficiaries (ex-spouse, deceased, minor children directly)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)