Creating an estate plan provides more benefits for your loved ones than it does for yourself. It will help save them time, effort and money as they handle your affairs after your death, which is often needed and appreciated by your exhausted and grieving family members and friends.
You can help them along even more by knowing how to avoid leaving behind a bad estate plan.
Understand the jargon behind your plan
Forbes discusses many of the mistakes that lead to messy estate plans. First of all, misunderstanding the point of an estate plan will lead to other mistakes later down the line. You should work together with an estate planning attorney from the start to help you avoid misinterpreting text, filling out documents incorrectly, or missing important forms entirely.
Next, do not rely on a will alone. A good estate plan is made up of several moving parts, including but not limited to your will, trust, power of attorney, healthcare proxy and more. If you only have a will, you likely miss out on securing important aspects of your plan and may create hang-ups for your loved ones.
Keep your estate organized
Do not leave behind a scattered estate, either. Get your affairs in order. This includes your physical assets – vacation homes, property, cars, etc. – as well as your intangible assets such as retirement funds and stocks. The more scattered and unorganized your assets are, the harder your loved ones will have to work to get everything in proper working order later.
Your loved ones will already have a lot on their plate when handling your death. Making sure your estate plan is organized and ready to handle will help them greatly.