Legacy Planning, Once Removed

Hosted by McGuireWoods

Business Investing Education

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May 2026

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About the show

“Legacy Planning, Once Removed,” hosted by Steve Murphy, former leader of the firm’s Private Wealth Services Practice Group, explores estate planning and provides steps for the management of wealth throughout life and upon death. Over the next 25 years, baby boomers will pass an unprecedented $68 trillion to beneficiaries and charities. The key challenge of legacy planning lies in how to use wealth to help the next generation be productive and independent. Podcast topics focus on beneficiary designations and property ownership, estate and gift tax, and best practices for productive investment, wealth management and transfer of wealth.

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57 recent

May 20, 202613 min

Estate Tax Planning for the Family Business

In many cases, an estate plan features a prominent asset such as a family business, which many owners hope to pass on to the next generation. But statistics reveal that few family businesses survive to the next generation. One particular obstacle to this succession plan is the estate tax that would be due on the owner’s interest upon death. This estate tax liability causes a need for cash that could force a sale of the business. This episode explores a few strategies that could be used to manage this estate tax liability upon the owner’s death. These strategies, if properly planned and implemented, could provide a means of managing, reducing or, perhaps, even eliminating that estate tax liability.

April 2, 20267 min

‘Trust Reveal’ — An Intriguing Concept

The concept of a “trust reveal” — a dramatic family meeting at which wealthy parents or grandparents disclose the full scope of trusts and estate structures to beneficiaries — has gained attention as a trending approach to intergenerational wealth transfer. This episode cautions against treating the estate plan as a single dramatic unveiling. This conversation explores a more measured alternative: sharing information in deliberate stages over time, from instilling family values in young children to discussing financial concepts with young adults, before eventually revealing fuller details about trust structures and distributions. Such an approach ensures beneficiaries are prepared, not overwhelmed, when they learn the complete picture.

March 12, 20267 min

Estate Planning as Spring Cleaning

Estate planning can feel overwhelming, but the concept of spring cleaning offers a practical framework for staying on top of your plan with low pressure and specific, achievable goals. This episode outlines four key tasks for an estate plan review: updating a chart of assets with ownership and beneficiary information, locating and organizing essential documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives), confirming that named decision makers still reflect your wishes, and opening communication with family members about legacy topics.

February 18, 20269 min

Filling Out Beneficiary Designations and Payable-on-Death Designations

A key element of any estate plan is the completion of beneficiary designations and payable-on-death designations for assets. These documents may look routine, but they control who receives certain accounts. This episode discusses issues to consider when filling out these designations, and provides some guidance and potential pitfalls.

February 4, 202611 min

Moving Assets Into Revocable Trusts — The ‘Why’ and ‘How’

Establishing a revocable trust is just the first step. In order to ensure that assets are properly managed and distributed during life and upon death, the client should consider whether and when to fund the revocable trust. Moving assets into a revocable trust is as much about process as it is about purpose. This conversation clarifies what “funding” means, when retitling supports probate avoidance and incapacity planning, and when leaving assets outside the trust may be preferable, with practical guidance for common asset types and a checklist-driven approach to ensure the plan works as intended.

January 15, 20267 min

Estate Planning Inflation Adjustments for 2026

Estate and tax planning is often influenced by specific numbers and thresholds, such as the estate/gift tax exemption, the GST tax exemption, the annual exclusion amount and income tax brackets. These numbers are periodically adjusted for inflation. This episode summarizes inflation adjustments for 2026 and provides guidance on how the new numbers might affect planning.

November 12, 20255 min

Healthcare Decisions: Naming the Right Agent and Communicating Wishes

An estate plan can address not only what happens upon a person’s passing but also how decisions are made if the person cannot make them during life. One set of documents — called a living will, healthcare power of attorney, advance directive or advance medical directive, depending on the state — designates an agent to make healthcare decisions on the person’s behalf and communicates what care they would or would not want to receive if they cannot make those decisions themselves.This document can be critical in providing clarity and avoiding confusion in the event of incapacity — such as if the client is in a coma or unconscious, is disabled or is in surgery. This episode explores these documents and how best to structure them.

October 30, 20259 min

The “Death Dossier”: Keeping Good Records and Documents for Successors

To make sure an estate plan can be administered effectively, it takes more than putting in place the right documents, structures and strategies. The executor, agent, trustee and other important figures must have access to information that will help them administer the estate or trust – and in many cases, the successors don’t know where to begin. This episode explores one of the most popular concepts from the last 50 episodes: the “death dossier,” a collection of documents and records that help successors identify and administer the assets in the event of a client’s death or incapacity. 

October 7, 20257 min

The Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a foundational document in an estate plan that names an agent to make decisions on behalf of the principal who, for instance, is disabled or not available. While it can be an important method of managing the principal’s finances, there are key issues the planner should consider when drafting a power of attorney.

September 24, 202510 min

Could Artificial Intelligence Allow Settlors to Guide and Control Trusts Forever?

When donors make gifts — during their lives or upon death — they typically give up control. Trusts have long been a tool for donors to maintain influence over how assets are managed and distributed by choosing trustees and drafting instructions. Traditionally, the settlor — the person creating the trust — cannot serve as trustee, especially if they want the trust to achieve certain tax or asset protection goals.But an AI program could be trained on the settlor’s wishes to make decisions the way the settlor would. This program can be incorporated into the trust structure as a settlor-trained AI (STAI) trustee, in a formal or informal way, so that a digital version of the settlor provides guidance long after the settlor can.This episode explores the concept of the STAI trustee and summarizes key concepts from a recent article Steve authored with colleague David Hirsch. The STAI trustee could be a powerful tool to help settlors structure trusts to carry out their wishes in the future, but there are pitfalls to navigate in exploring this concept.