As a Personal Family Lawyer®, I see many of the same estate planning mistakes made time and again by people who either fail to plan properly or who use “do-it-yourself” estate planning websites or forms in an effort to save money.
Without professional guidance, this can cause more problems for your heirs and end up depleting estate assets by far more than what you could potentially “save” by doing it yourself online.
A qualified estate planning attorney or Personal Family Lawyer® can help you avoid these 10 common estate planning mistakes:
- Failure to leave any written documentation of your assets, including a list of your online accounts and passwords
- Failure to let family members know where to find important estate planning documents
- Failure to name a guardian for minor children or choosing a guardian who lives far away without planning for temporary, local guardianship (solved with a comprehensive Kids Protection Plan®)
- Failure to name recipients for your personal possessions
- Failure to designate beneficiaries for retirement and other financial accounts
- Failure to name secondary beneficiaries
- Failure to name alternative trustees or executors
- Failure to properly fund or title assets to any trusts you have established
- Failure to update your estate plan as life circumstances change
- Failure to create an estate plan of any kind and instead leaving it to the court system to decide how your assets will be distributed
