Providing for your family through estate planning can be very a complicated and confusing process, even for financial professionals. Michael T. Ohlman, columnist for the Bradenton Herald, compiled the following list of estate planning mistakes to watch out for:
Not funding your living trust.
Too much JTWROS property.
Leaving too many assets to a surviving spouse.
Not equalizing assets through gifts between spouses.
Not having a will.
Improper ownership of life insurance.
Being donor and custodian of a uniform-gift-to-minors-act/uniform-transfer-to-minors-act account.
Not knowing where all the "stuff" is.
Naming the wrong executor.
Not periodically updating an estate plan.
This list should be a helpful reference as you fine-tune your estate plan or work with estate planning experts to create your estate plan for the first time. |