After working for years and providing for yourself or your family, and you consider a future of finally settling down and living life in retirement, it’s important to prepare for life when we’re no longer part of the workforce. This is why employees and business owners need to consider estate planning.
Watching Out for Estate Planning Mistakes
Instead of seeing it as the end of one chapter in your life, think of it as a preparation for your future.
Planning your estate involves handling the delegation of your assets to your beneficiaries. For this reason, it’s important to consult with your attorney, accountant and financial advisor to make sure your estate plan is thorough and detailed.
In this article, we’ll point out four estate planning mistakes you should watch out for.
1. Not Knowing Estate Tax Liabilities
Simply leaving your assets to your beneficiaries isn’t as straightforward as you think it may be. You also need to consider state and federal estate taxes that need to be paid. We recommend consulting with an estate planning attorney, accountant and financial advisor to develop a tax strategy for your estate plans.
2. Indicating Health Concerns
It’s vital to appoint a power of attorney so someone can execute your estate plans. However, it’s also necessary to appoint someone with a medical power of attorney. This allows someone the authority to make healthcare decisions for you in the event that you are not able to make those decisions for yourself.
3. Updating Your Beneficiaries
Your beneficiary list indicates who will receive which assets upon your passing. This can be anyone from business partners to family members. Unfortunately, these people can come and go in your life, either by being deceased themselves or cutting ties with you indefinitely. For this reason, you should frequently review and evaluate your estate plans to ensure they reflect your current wishes.
4. Revising Your Estate Plan Regularly
The benefit of developing your estate plan early is that it allows you to feel secure about your future, whatever may happen to you. However, your estate plan is not set in stone and should be revisited regularly.
If you have changes in your life regarding the ownership of different assets and investments, it’s best to revise your estate plan to reflect those changes.
This article is limited to providing general information about financial services and
access to traditional investment-related information, general investing publications, and
the like. Nothing in this article is a solicitation to transact in securities, or to provide
personalized investment advice. The advisor’s professional designation, certification,
education, degree, or license is not a guarantee of satisfaction or results should a client
engage the advisor. All investments involve risk of loss, different types of investments
involve differing levels of risk, and there is no assurance that the future performance of
any investment will be profitable or match any prior performance.
