Kindness Financial Planning
By Elliott Appel on September 2nd, 2024
What estate planning horror stories have you heard? It could be money going to the wrong person, incorrect people settling the estate, or other restrictions someone never intended.
Good estate planning can set up your heirs and loved ones for success. It can’t eliminate conflicts, but it can help avoid them and provide a path for how things should be done.
As you think about your own estate plan, consider as many “what if” scenarios as possible. Does your plan adequately address each one? If not, you may want to consult an attorney to discuss updating it. Like any other service provider, some attorneys are wonderful and will pose important questions to you. Others won’t. You may need to consult a different attorney or be more proactive in speaking up for yourself.
If you don’t ask questions, you may not get the result you want. You may get a boilerplate document that’s not customized to your situation.
I encourage folks to regularly review their estate plan, ask their estate planning attorney lots of questions to make sure they understand it, and consider putting contingencies in place for worst case scenarios.
Elliott Appel, CFP®, CLU®, RLP®
