Estate Planning for Military Families & Veterans

Plan for Your Future with Financial Peace of Mind

You’ve spent your whole life ensuring your family was safe and financially stable. Estate planning ensures your loved ones will be taken care of no matter what happens—so you can live confidently and enjoy every moment.

At AAFMAA Wealth Management & Trust (AWM&T), our CFP® Professionals can help you understand wills, durable powers of attorney, beneficiary designations, advanced medical directives, trusts, and other ways to prepare. We do not provide legal advice, but we work with you and your estate planning attorney who will provide necessary legal guidance and prepare any required legal documents.

We understand the sacrifices you and your family have made, and we promise to stand with you, always. You and your loved ones will receive dedicated support from your Relationship Manager to make managing your estate as seamless as possible.

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We Can Help You:

Coordinate your wills & directives — durable powers of attorney, advanced medical directives, and letters of instruction.
Align your military benefits — make sure SGLI, SBP, and beneficiary designations work with your estate plan, not against it.
Administer your trust professionally — as a chartered trust company, we can serve as your trustee.
Avoid probate proceedings — structure your estate so assets pass smoothly to your heirs.
Prepare for deployment — we’ll help you get the right documents in place.

What Makes Military Estate Planning Different

A generic estate plan may account for your assets, but it often overlooks the military benefits and elections that can have just as much impact on your family’s future. From Survivor Benefit Plan elections to TSP beneficiaries and VA survivor benefits, military families face planning considerations that many advisors encounter only occasionally.

Because AWM&T serves the military community every day, we understand how these pieces fit together and how to incorporate them into a comprehensive estate plan.

Frequent relocation

Laws on wills, POAs, and trusts vary by state. A plan written for Virginia may not translate when you PCS to Hawaii.

Deployment risk

Documents need to be airtight before deployment, not after notification.

SBP coordination

Your Survivor Benefit Plan election interacts with your trust, life insurance, and will. None should be set without the others in view.

SGLI, VGLI & insurance layering

Military coverage changes at separation, and what your family needs usually extends past what the military provides.

TSP & military retirement

TSP beneficiary designations override your will. Out-of-date forms are among the most common causes of unintended outcomes.

DD Form 93 (Record of Emergency Data)

Controls certain death benefits and can override your will, so it must reflect your current wishes.

VA benefits

Some transfer to survivors; some don’t. The plan should make clear what your family can claim, and from whom.

Estate Planning for the Military Isn’t Just for Retirement

Many servicemembers assume estate planning is something to handle later. But military life has a way of making it urgent sooner. A deployment on the calendar. A marriage. A new child. A PCS across state lines. Each is a moment when the right plan protects your family, and the wrong gaps leave them exposed.

Whether you’re early in your career or planning your legacy, estate planning for military personnel is about one thing: making sure that no matter what happens, your family is cared for and your wishes are honored.

We can also help you with retirement planning and investment management.

Frequently Asked Questions About Estate Planning for Military Families

Yes — being in the military makes a will especially important. Military legal assistance offices can prepare a basic will at no cost, a good starting point for many active-duty servicemembers. Families with assets, children, or complex circumstances often outgrow the basic JAG will and benefit from a civilian estate attorney.

Yes — and this is one of the most important things to keep current. Your SGLI beneficiary designation on the SGLV 8286 form overrides anything written in your will. A divorce, remarriage, or death in the family without a matching SGLI update has caused more unintended outcomes than almost any other single issue.

A will directs what happens to your property after death and passes through probate. A trust holds and distributes assets, often outside probate, sometimes while you’re still alive. Most complete estate plans use both. An estate attorney can walk you through which serves your situation.

No. AWM&T doesn’t provide legal advice or draft legal instruments. We work alongside your estate attorney to coordinate the financial side — beneficiary designations, account structure, trust funding, and survivor coordination. If you don’t have an attorney, we can refer one.

Every three to five years at a minimum, and after any major life event — marriage, divorce, birth, adoption, PCS to a new state, deployment, promotion, or the death of a named beneficiary. Law changes; your plan should be reviewed against current law, not just your current life.

Your TSP balance passes to whoever you named on your TSP beneficiary designation form (TSP-3), which overrides your will. Spousal beneficiaries can typically maintain the account; non-spouse beneficiaries usually need to roll the balance into an inherited IRA or take a distribution.