25 June, 2021
People plan their life for everything. They plan to have a good career, a good married life, a good retirement life. So, why stop there? Plan a good end of your life too. Here, by the end of life, we mean estate planning.
Estate planning is about managing your assets and leaving anime for the heir who will be given all your assets and property after your death. We understand that for most people, it is difficult to plan your end. But you must not forget that it is an event that is certain.
Estate planning is one of the topics that least talk about people, and many people also see it as a bad omen. This makes the situation worse because this kind of thinking has restricted people from understanding the true benefits of estate planning.
If you are new to this whole estate planning concept and practice, it is better that you take help from estate planning attorneys. Although estate planning is one of the easiest ways to distribute your property to family members, it comes with legal procedures.
This article will discuss the mistakes that you need to avoid while making your Will.
Common Estate Planning Mistakes
While creating an estate plan is important, so creating one that avoids mistakes and critical flaws is essential. After all, you wouldn’t like to invest your precious time and energy to create a plan that is infested with errors and mistakes.
So you must know what mistakes are associated with estate planning, and knowing them will help you avoid them.
Here are the most common estate planning mistakes.
1. Failing To Plan
The biggest mistake you can make with estate planning is never considering the importance of making a Will or estate plan. Unfortunately, many of us still believe that making a will is a rich man thing. However, that is not the case. Even if you have small assets, you need an estate plan to ensure that assets reach the right hand after your death.
2. Not Discussing With The Family
Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. We all know that letting your family members know about the Will can make the whole situation worse. However, you must show trust in your family and have brief conversations about the Will.
This will give you an idea about them and clear your mind on the property distribution. If you are not feeling confident of holding a meeting over the property distribution, you can always take help from Property lawyers to get the job done.
3. Choosing The Wrong Team To Plan
You must choose the right person to plan your estate. An estate wort can be eroded with poor estate planning and taxation processes. Hence, you must look for a team of professionals with knowledge of federal and state estate laws. Having the right team for the estate plan brings out the best value of each property and ensures a fair distribution of the property.
4. Failing To Consider The Unexpected
While you are creating your Will, you must be prepared to face unexpected circumstances and situations. For instance, your death before the age of retirement, a long-term illness that makes it impossible for you to work. For situations like this, you must also have a Living Will and a durable power of attorney to make decisions related to your care.
5. Not Mentioning The Guardian For Your Children (Minor)
If your estate plan involves a minor and you plan to leave some of your property to the minor, you must name a guardian who will take care of the minor. Not mentioning specifically who will be the guardian of the minor might create problems for them and for that part of the property that has been allotted to the minor.
6. Not Reviewing Your Will Over The Time
You must understand that an estate plan is not something whose work is completed once you have created a Will. You must always reevaluate your situation and the others around you. And keep updating the Will accordingly. As we have already mentioned above, there can be several uncertain scenarios where you might want to change the name of the heir or change the property distribution.
7. Getting Too Specific With Your Will
We normally advise our readers to be specific with the Will while creating an estate plan. However, there is one caveat to that point.l there might be cases where you specify a particular property which you own currently but might have the possibility of not having the property at the time of declaration of the Will.
8. Forgetting About The Taxes
Estate taxes can put a huge dent in what you plan to leave for your family. In addition to that, you must also consider the gifts and how they will impact the beneficiaries.
9. Forgetting About The charities You Care For
As you are creating your Will, you mustn’t forget about the charitable care that you manage. You must allocate something to them as well.
10. Not Adding Residuary Clause To Your Will
Finally, adding a residuary clause to your Will. Residuary Clauses are the collection of the assets that you have possessed after the creation of the Will. If you are not careful about these assets, you might lose them after your death.
Hence, you must keep updating your will with the Residuary Clause to ensure others know what other assets you have apart from the mentioned in the Will. to know more about this process; Estate Planning Attorney Marietta GA will help you out.
Final Mistakes
Estate planning is one of the generous things you would do for your family. But do not let your good intention fall to the wayside by making the mistakes we have highlighted here. The final mistake would be not creating a will even after knowing what benefits it brings.
Is there something we missed, or are you going to find out in this article? If there is any, reach out to us!
