Estate Planning Mistakes | Estate Planning Attorney in Raleigh NC
These days, drafting an estate plan online or with anyone other than an estate lawyer in Raleigh NC has become quite popular. Unfortunately, there are many mistakes that can be made with basic estate planning. When making or updating your estate plan, it might be best to trust a lawyer to help you steer clear of any mistakes.
Forgetting to Add Your Personal Belongings | Estate Planning Attorney in Raleigh NC
Estate planning is a great way to ensure that every single asset you’ve acquired over the course of your lifetime is accounted for when you pass. This includes cars, homes, money, and more. Many times, those that are taking the time to estate plan forget to add personal belongings like jewelry or collectibles in the plan. You might assume that members will get what they want when the time comes or you just assume that they aren’t estate planning worthy. These items are things that some family members might want most of all. They’re things that they can remember you by for years to come. Forgetting to add them into your estate plan and dividing them up among family members might lead to family friction and the wrong loved ones receiving the items instead.
It might be a good idea to sit down with family members and ask them which of your personal belongings they would like to have, long before they’re in a place to accept them. Finding out exactly what they’d like to have can help you divide the belongings up and add this information to your estate planning documents.
Forgetting to Fund Your Revocable Living Trust
Creating a trust doesn’t automatically fund them. This is a mistake that many online estate planners make. In order to fund a trust, you must transfer assets to the trust. If you don’t take the time to do this, the act of setting the trust up becomes irrelevant. The assets unaccounted for will go through probate in the event of your death. If you become incapacitated mentally or physically, the funds will be dealt with by a court-appointed guardianship. You won’t have say so over who the guardian becomes or who ends up with your assets.
There are many mistakes that can be made when trying to draft an estate plan online or through someone else that might not be properly qualified. For more information on what mistakes you should steer clear of while estate planning, visit back with our blog soon.
As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have about your current estate plan. In addition, if you’re worried your estate plan isn’t sound or updated properly, allow our estate planning attorney in Raleigh NC to look the plan over and help you make necessary changes.
