Avoiding Estate Planning Mistakes

Estate planning is a powerful tool.

Though, because of how much estate planning law encompasses, it’s easy to get confused and/or miss some key parts. Not only are you potentially trying to account for every last asset, you might also be trying to ensure that you have proper medical coverage.

You don’t want to be underprepared in the event that something does happen.

So, to help you get everything right, you’ll find four examples of what kind of mistakes anyone can make during estate planning. These examples are meant to help you avoid making them yourself. Please note that as long as you have the time, there might still be time to fix any estate planning mistakes that you’ve made in the past. Think about what you can improve.

Beneficiary Blunders

Forgetting to write a beneficiary into your will is like a novelist forgetting to write a character into their book. You should avoid this estate planning mistake. They don’t get to be a part of the story you intended for them. The beneficiary might miss out on their opportunity to receive gifts from you, assuming that all of your estate gets allocated to other loved ones. While other beneficiaries might make the assumption that you wanted to give to the unmentioned beneficiary, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to fully address the issue.

Your estate goes to where you allocated it to once you’ve passed. It’s when revocable trusts become irrevocable trusts. Things that were previously tentative start to become permanent. The importance of knowing exactly what you want in your will and trusts and keeping them updated can’t be stressed enough. Once you’re gone, reading your estate planning might involve taking it literally, ignoring potentially underlying ideas.

Limited by Time

Just as much as you want all your beneficiaries included into your estate planning, you probably want all your estate included as well. Most people tend to lose and obtain assets on a yearly basis. Whether those assets are added or subtracted from your estate planning is up to you.

The assets you lose are lost. The assets that you obtain are another story as those taking over your estate may soon find out. Probate could be what they have to go through if they’re not properly handled.

Thankfully, probate can act as a safety net for assets long forgotten. The central issues of probate, nonetheless, revolve around control, effort, and time. You may not have any real control over who gets what during probate. Someone might need to put in some extra effort to locate every last asset. Time will also be needed to account for the assets that you didn’t account for. Keep in mind that all of your assets must be accounted for during probate. It’s not like undesirable assets can be left out of the picture or forgotten.

Not Knowing the Contents

For your sake, don’t throw your assets into your will like fruits in a blender, anticipating them to come out exactly like you want them to.

Estate planning takes thought and care. Perhaps the biggest mistake you can make during estate planning is rushing things and/or not paying attention to every detail. For your sake, be honest (if not brutally honest) about how you want every last detail to be managed. Repetition might actually be your friend for once.

While not everyone wants to use irrevocable trusts, they serve as a good example for being considerate while working on your estate planning. Consider the following possibility. Irrevocable trusts act just like they sound because once you sign them, you legally sign over ownership of whatever that trust covers. So, unless you do every bit of sleuthing out what’s inside the trust, you stand to lose a lot of property unknowingly. For your best interests, read all of the little details.

Neglecting a Power of Attorney (POA)

To help better take care of your medical decisions and your financial decisions, you’re probably going to need to grant at least one person power of attorney (POA). There are numerous different flavors of POA with their own merits, but assuming you want someone to take care of things while you’re incapacitated, giving someone durable power of attorney might be advisable. You can’t be sure that someone will be able to serve as your conservator and/or guardian. Giving someone you trust POA helps guarantee that they might be able to help you.

Here’s the concern. If you become incapacitated and you haven’t granted someone durable POA over money and medical decisions, someone might not be able to do anything about that. For all legal circumstances, as long as you’re incapacitated, you might not be able to do a thing. That includes changing your estate planning. Doctors might not know all of the things that you want done and your property might not be taken care of. Consider taking preventive action beforehand.

Minnesota Estate Planning Lawyers

Now that you know what not to do, it’s time to consider what you should do next. For starters, consider getting in touch with the law firm of Flanders Law Firm LLC. Just give them a call at 612-424-0398.

You’ll find help for just about anything pertaining to elder law and estate planning. The next question you’ll probably come across is what parts of estate planning do you need to still do. The answer for that question might be more complex than you initially realize, but that’s okay. Estate planning is an on-going process that you may want to be involved in for the rest of your life.

Sources:

https://amp.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/T021-C032-S014-10-surprisingly-common-estate-planning-mistakes.html