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The viewers of this high-end PBS costume drama, which takes place about a century ago, could very likely be your clients' demographic. Look at who's a top corporate sponsor: Viking River Cruises, which told The New York Times that “our demographic is affluent Baby Boomers 55+.” It's a big group: more than 10.1 million viewers watched the first episode of the fifth season in early January. Look closely and see if Downton can impart valuable financial lessons to you.

It can be difficult to explain to clients the ramifications of putting off their estate planning. Sometimes people have to “see it to believe it,” so to speak. Enter PBS hit series, Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey follows the lives of the fictitious Crawley family who live in a grand English country house in the early 1900s. Downton’s characters can teach some valuable financial lessons, according to AccountingWEB’s recent post titled, “8 Lessons You and Your Clients Learn by Watching Downton Abbey.

The decision about how to designate beneficiaries for your company retirement plan, life insurance policies, and other assets might seem like a no-brainer. Chances are you would like those near and dear to you to inherit any money you've accumulated during your lifetime, so making sure that happens should be as simple as writing their names on the appropriate forms, right? Not so fast.

Have you designated beneficiaries on the appropriate accounts? Are you sure you did it right?

A good estate plan uses a wide-variety of vehicles to distribute the estate. Today, that normally means that retirement accounts and life insurance are used to help quickly distribute assets to heirs after someone passes away. Because of this importance, you need to know how to go about designating beneficiaries to receive the assets.

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“Downton Abbey” — A Good Lesson for Houston Families

Beneficiary Designations 101 for Houston Families