What Happens When Wills, Trusts, and Beneficiary Designations Conflict?

Estate planning is meant to create clarity and peace of mind, ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes. However, when multiple estate planning tools—Wills, Trusts, property deeds, and beneficiary designations—conflict with one another, the outcome can be anything but peaceful. In fact, it can lead to legal disputes, probate litigation, and damaged family relationships.

Here’s what you need to know about how these documents and tools interact—and what happens when they don’t agree.

Understanding the Hierarchy of Estate Planning Instruments

Not all estate planning documents carry the same legal weight. When conflicts arise, the type of asset and how it’s titled often determine which document controls. Here’s a general order of precedence:

1. Beneficiary Designations (Contracts)
2. Property Ownership (Title)
3. Trust Agreements
4. Wills

Let’s break this down and look at how conflicts are typically resolved.

1. Beneficiary Designations Override Wills and Trusts

Certain assets—like life insurance policies, retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s), annuities, and some bank accounts—allow you to name a beneficiary directly. These designations function as contracts between you and the financial institution.

What happens in a conflict?

If your Will or Trust names a different beneficiary than what’s listed on your IRA or life insurance policy, the named beneficiary on the account wins—regardless of what your Will or Trust says.

Example:
Your Will states that your spouse should inherit all your assets, but your 401(k) still names your ex-spouse. Unless corrected, your ex gets the 401(k).

2. Property Ownership Often Trumps Your Will

How property is titled—especially real estate and joint accounts—can override what your Will or Trust states.

Common Forms of Property Ownership:

• Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship: Passes automatically to the surviving owner.
• Tenancy by the Entirety (for married couples in some states): Also passes to the surviving spouse.
• Community Property with Right of Survivorship: Same effect.
• Transfer-on-Death (TOD) or Beneficiary Deed: Transfers property to the named beneficiary outside of probate.
• Tenants in Common: Property transfers through probate according to the terms of your Will.

If a home is titled with survivorship rights, and your Will gives that home to someone else, the survivorship title takes precedence.

Example:
You and your adult child own a home as joint tenants. Your Will says the home should go to your niece. The child inherits it automatically, regardless of the Will.

3. Trusts Control Trust-Owned Assets

If assets are titled in the name of a revocable living trust, they are controlled by the trust agreement—not the Will.

This is a key point of confusion. People often create a Trust but fail to properly fund it, leaving assets outside the Trust, which then fall under the Will or become probate assets.

Example:
Your Trust says all assets go to your children. Your brokerage account, which you never transferred to the Trust, has a POD designation to your brother. The brokerage goes to your brother, not your children.

4. The Will Acts as a Safety Net—But Only for Probate Assets

The Will governs only assets that:

• Do not have Survivorship rights,
• Are not in a Trust, and
• Have no beneficiary designation.

If an asset falls into one of these categories, the Will directs who receives it. Otherwise, it may be legally bypassed by other instruments.

When All Four Tools Conflict: A Realistic Scenario

Let’s say:

• Your Will leaves all assets to your spouse.
• Your Trust says everything goes equally to your children.
• Your home is jointly owned with your sister as joint tenants.
• Your retirement account names your ex-spouse as beneficiary.

Who gets what?

• Retirement Account → Your ex-spouse, due to beneficiary designation.
• Home → Your sister, due to joint tenancy.
• Trust Assets → Your children, per Trust instructions.
• Any other probate assets → Your spouse, per your Will.

As you can see, the result can be dramatically different from what you may have intended. And worse, it can spark costly disputes among surviving family members.

How to Prevent Conflicting Instructions

To avoid unintended outcomes, follow these best practices:

✅ Coordinate All Estate Planning Documents

Make sure your Will, Trust, property deeds, and beneficiary forms all align. They should not contradict each other.

✅ Review Regularly

Review your entire estate plan every 2–3 years and after major life changes such as divorce, death, remarriage, birth of a child, or a major financial event.

✅ Fund Your Trust Properly

Assets you want governed by the Trust must be titled in the name of the Trust or have the Trust listed as the beneficiary.

✅ Update Beneficiary Designations

Regularly update designations on retirement accounts, bank accounts, annuities, and life insurance policies to reflect your current wishes.

✅ Work With an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney

A coordinated estate plan requires professional oversight. An attorney can ensure every document works in harmony with the others.

Final Thoughts

Conflicts between your Will, Trust, property titles, and beneficiary designations can completely derail your estate plan. Your best intentions can be overridden by outdated forms or improperly titled assets—leading to outcomes you never intended and disputes among those you leave behind.