{"id":61,"date":"2011-04-30T13:25:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-30T13:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/?p=61"},"modified":"2011-04-30T13:25:28","modified_gmt":"2011-04-30T13:25:28","slug":"5-missteps-that-can-sabotage-your-estate-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/5-missteps-that-can-sabotage-your-estate-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Missteps That Can Sabotage Your Estate Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to protecting your wealth and your family creating an estate plan is one of the most important things you can do.\u00a0 An estate plan is your key to ensuring that your hard-earned assets are distributed (or saved or invested) as you designate. An estate plan is your family\u2019s safety net.\u00a0 Unfortunately, too many people attempt to take shortcuts with their plan, and find themselves with a safety net that is falling apart just when they need it most.\u00a0 Below are 5 of the most common missteps that can sabotage your estate plan, and how you can avoid them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Neglecting to fund your trust.<\/strong> A trust can be a wonderful tool for protecting your assets; flexible and customizable, a useful trust can be created for just about every situation.\u00a0 But a trust is like a strongbox\u2014if you don\u2019t fill it up it has nothing to protect.\u00a0 Accounts and assets must be put in the name of your trust for it to work as you\u2019ve designed it to.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2. Not enlisting the help of an estate planning attorney.<\/strong> There are a number of Do-It-Yourself will and estate planning programs out there that promise you a full estate plan for a cheaper price; but estate plans are complicated things, requirements change depending on your state of residence, the size of your estate, the age and situation of your beneficiaries, and much more.\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t able to work with an attorney to create your plan, at the very least we urge you to have an attorney review your plan before you sign it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3. Neglecting to mention previous estate planning documents, or making unofficial changes in the margins of documents that have already been signed.<\/strong> When creating a will or a trust or any other common estate planning document it is usually necessary to revoke any previous documents so there is no confusion about which document is current and valid.\u00a0 Neglecting to do this can end with your assets tied up in probate court for months or years\u2014or even worse, invalidating both documents completely.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4. Putting your plan somewhere safe\u2014somewhere so \u201csafe\u201d, in fact, that nobody can find or access it!<\/strong> People recognize that estate planning documents are things of value, and as such should be protected in a locked filing cabinet or safe deposit box.\u00a0 Wherever you choose to store your documents, be sure one or two trusted individuals have not only the knowledge of where the documents are, but also the ability to access them.\u00a0 An estate plan does no good if it cannot be accessed when it\u2019s needed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5. And finally, one of the most common missteps that can sabotage your estate plan is failing to update your plan regularly<\/em>.<\/strong> Not only do federal and state laws change periodically (as we have recently experienced) but you will undoubtedly experience changes in your own life and fortune.\u00a0 Failing to update your plan to keep up with the law or with your own life can result in an estate plan that is as useful as a car you neglected to maintain\u2014it may look fine on the outside, but it simply won\u2019t run anymore.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to protecting your wealth and your family creating an estate plan is one of the most important things you can do.\u00a0 An estate plan is your key to ensuring that your hard-earned assets are distributed (or saved or invested) as you designate. An estate plan is your family\u2019s safety net.\u00a0 Unfortunately, too… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[76,20,77,53],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-estate-planning","tag-ca-estate-planning-attorney","tag-estate-planning-2","tag-last-will-and-testament","tag-revocable-living-trust"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estatetrustlawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}