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Samantha and Sam Spartan are in their mid-30s and have two young children. They live in a modest home and they have few investments. They have just started to save for retirement after paying off student loans and cutting up their credit cards. Samantha has a salary of $90,000 and Sam has a salary of $65,000. Because of their two young children, Steve (9) and Stacy (3), they purchased life insurance, but that is all they have done to date. Samantha and Sam have decided they should do some estate planning just in case. Samanthas sister, Sally Smith, would be a good person to take care of the kids if something happened to Samantha and Sam. They havent talked to her about her willingness to take care of the kids. Samantha is worried if something happens to her, Sam wont be able to handle her estate. He isnt very good with paperwork. Sam is quite comfortable with healthcare decisions as well as daily financial management.

Their assets are as follows:

House (Entireties, net of mortgage) $50,000

Cash and Investments (JTWROS) $35,000

Samanthas IRA³ $12,000

Sams Roth IRA⁴ $10,000

Samanthas Life Insurance¹ $150,000

Sams Life Insurance² $100,000

Sams Car $15,000

Samanthas Car $7,000

They have the following designated beneficiaries:

1 Sam is designated beneficiary. Steve is the contingent.

2 No beneficiary designation

3 Sam is designated beneficiary. No contingent. IRA provider establishes default beneficiary as the estate.

4 Samantha is designated beneficiary. No contingent. IRA provider establishes default beneficiary as the spouse if surviving and children if not.

Laws of intestacy provide that if no living children 100% of the estate will go to the spouse. If there are children, 50% to the surviving spouse and remainder to be split evenly between surviving children. If no surviving spouse 100% to surviving children.

Question: What would happen to their assets and children if Sam died right now (be specific)? What would happen to their assets and children if Samantha died right now (be specific)? What would happen to their assets and children if they both died right now (be specific)? Take into account beneficiaries, JTWROS, and entireties.

My current answer for if Sam died right now (am I getting the right idea of how to answer this?):

If Sam died right now, the laws of intestacy would apply and the disposition of his assets would be determined by his will (if one exists), or by the states intestacy laws. In the absence of a will, the distribution of assets would be determined by state law. In this case, since Sam and Samantha are married, the laws of intestacy would provide that Samantha would receive 50% of Sams estate and the two children would receive the other 50% (divided up into each getting 25%). Samantha would receive his half of ownership of the house since it is by entirety. This totals $25,000 (half of $50,000). She would also receive all of his interest in the cash and investments. Assuming half was his and half was hers, she would get $17,500. The $10,000 IRA has Samantha named as the beneficiary, so that money would go to her. Sams other assets, including the $15,000 car and $100,000 life insurance (no designated beneficiary) and any other assets Sam owned at the time of his death would be split up according to the states intestacy laws. In the case that the life insurance plan goes to the spouse when no beneficiary is named, the money would go to Samantha. This would mean that Samantha would receive the $100,000 in life insurance and $7,500 for the car, while her children would each receive $3,750. In the case that it goes to the estate, it would be split between Samantha and her children. This is a total of $115,000, so Samantha would receive $57,500 and Steve and Stacy would each receive $28,750 (received at the age of 18). Samantha would oversee investing and managing her childrens assets until they turn 18.

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