Estate Planning Traps

Now that you' ve signed your will, trust, durable powers of attorney and medical directives, you're done with estate planning, right?

Wrong. There still is lots to do. If you created one or more trusts, you may have to fund the trusts, that is, transfer any assets into them that need to be put there. A trust is like a basket. When you first buy the basket, it's empty. Only when you put things into the basket does it do what it was meant to do. It may be that your trust is designed to remain unfunded (empty) until death, in which case you don't need to transfer anything to it. But if it was meant to be funded, you still have work to do.

Every year review your estate plan to make sure the beneficiary designations are correct and everything is as you want. Every three years you should sit down with your estate planning professionals (accountant, attorney, financial planner, etc.) and review your entire plan. If your situation changes drastically, such as a divorce, new child, sale of home, change of job, meet as soon as that occurs.

By doing these things, you can avoid the trap that your estate plan doesn't do what you intended it to do.