You aren’t likely to know if your plan succeeds or fails, because you’ll be gone. But you should take steps to ensure success.
One reason for estate plan failures is lack of follow through.
For your estate plan to be successful, you need to implement the plan; then regularly update the plan. Throughout your life things change; your plan should be updated to reflect these changes; such as marriage, divorce, kids, house purchase, etc. Also, laws change and your plan should be update accordingly.
An estate plan isn’t something that can be completed once and forgotten. An obsolete plan can be worse than no plan.
Powers of attorney and advance medical directives are other sources of failure.
Whether getting these documents online or from your attorney, people often do these documents then put then on a shelf or in a filing cabinet. These documents does you no good if no one knows they exist. The documents appoint agents to act on your behalf when needed. The agents need to know about the documents and have access to them.
Not Informing your heirs.
Inform people who stand to benefit from your estate. Let them know at least generally the value of the estate, the assets and liabilities in it, and the outline of your plan. That way, they won’t be surprised and will have an opportunity to express any views they have.
Prepare your heirs. Try to educate them about how to handle the wealth and what your intentions and wishes are. If they don’t seem to have the financial literacy to grasp what should be done, consider helping them to get the financial knowledge they will need.
