| 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- Outdated beneficiaries (ex-spouse, deceased, minor children directly)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:
- Map current ownership: Person → Entity → Entity → Asset
- For each entity, determine succession rules:
- Trust: beneficiary provisions
- LLC: operating agreement transfer restrictions
- Corp: shareholder agreement, buy-sell provisions
- 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)
