Published on Forbes | Money | Retirement
By Christine Fletcher on March 16th, 2023
The goal of estate planning is to ensure your assets transition to your loved ones after your death in an efficient manner while maximizing tax savings. There is no one plan for everyone – it depends on you, your family, your assets and your wishes. Unfortunately, not everyone pays as much attention to their estate plan as they should or heeds the advice of their lawyer.
During the estate administration process, it is easy to see where the decedent veered off course. Often the fix was inexpensive and could have saved their heirs lots of money in legal fees. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
Here are the top 10 costly mistakes I have seen in administering estates:
Having no will or trust can lead to your family members battling it out in court over your intentions or having the court oversee every aspect of the administration. This is particularly true if you have minor children as they cannot inherit money. The court will appoint a guardian to hold the minor child’s inheritance and then will oversee the monies spent.
Christine Fletcher, Partner, Day Pitney LLP
