What happens to your IRA or 401k when you pass on to the sweet by and by?  Whether your heirs receive the fruit of your effort easily and immediately, or whether they have to fight with the government, creditors and a lengthy bureaucratic mess is TOTALLY up to you.  I’m Bryan Ellis.  I’ll tell you how to make sure your loved ones get what you want them to have RIGHT NOW in Episode 136.-----Hello, SDI Nation!  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy, self-directed investors like you.There’s one really interesting thing I’m observing with startling frequency about the way that very wealthy people use IRA’s versus their less affluent counterparts.  It’s not as a vehicle for retirement savings, but as a tool for estate planning.Now, my friends, much of this audience is, in fact, sufficiently wealthy that this is directly relevant to them.  But even for those of you who are merely affluent, and not truly “swimming in it”… well, this information is highly relevant for you, too.See, here’s the thing:  IRA’s offer some really cool estate planning capabilities.  I should be more specific.  Roth IRA’s… and Roth 401k’s also… are almost magical.  When the owner of a Roth account passes away, that account is inherited by the now-deceased owner’s designated beneficiary.  And in most cases, that account is then available to the beneficiary IMMEDIATELY… that beneficiary can take some of the money out or basically none of it – they do have to take at least a small amount out to be compliant with IRS rules – but the bottom line:  The beneficiary has nearly absolute discretion of when to withdraw that money.  But even that’s not the cool thing.The really cool thing is that because it’s a ROTH account, the beneficiary pays ZERO taxes on that money!  Zero, zilch, nada!  It doesn’t even matter if the beneficiary is of retirement age.  The beneficiary can, on day one, begin to enjoy the proceeds of that account without tax ramifications.That, my friends, is HUGE.  As Donald Trump might say…. HUUUUUUGE!BUT… and this, too, is HUUUUUGE… your intended beneficiary will NOT inherit your account automatically.  So how can you make sure your intended beneficiary inherits your account?The answer is to be certain that you’ve properly submitted a beneficiary designation form with your custodian.Here’s why:  If you file such a form with your custodian, it’s a simple process for them to effect the inheritance your account upon your passing.  Your account will end being converted to an “inherited IRA” account rather than a standard IRA, and that account will, with haste, be available to and under the control of the beneficiary or beneficiaries you’ve specified.  It’s a very quick, simple process.But what if you do NOT have a beneficiary designation on file?  In that case, unless your master agreement with the custodian specified default choices such as your spouse or children, then your IRA will become part of your estate and must go through probate.And there are a few serious problems with that.First, it’s going to take a long time.  Probate is a slow process, and if your beneficiary is in need of the inheritance, well… it’s a bad situation.Second, it’s expensive… probate lawyers have to eat, too.  And from what I hear, the fees they charge – which the funds in your IRA may be used to help pay – allow those lawyers to eat very, very well.Third, it’s dangerous… If you have creditors at the time of your passing, those creditors are entitled to make claims on the assets of your estate in order to be made whole.  But if you properly execute a beneficiary designation form, then your IRA will pass directly to your beneficiary, without passing through probate and without being used to pay down debts owed to your creditors.So here’s the bottom line:  Call your custodian today and make sure that you have specified both a beneficiary and an alternate beneficiary.  And put a mark on your calendar for every year at this time.  Make it as the SDI IRA Beneficiary Checkup D