When people are planning for their estates there are a few often important items that they tend to overlook.
Planning for an estate can be complicated. You need to take stock of all of your assets, figure out what should be done with them, and talk to an estate planning attorney to discuss the best way to make sure those assets are distributed as you desire. When doing that, do not overlook other estate planning issues you might want to address. Otherwise your estate plan may be less effective and comprehensive as it could be.
If the attorney does not know about certain issues important to you, then the attorney cannot help you plan for them.
Recently, the Lake County News listed some commonly overlooked issues in "Estate Planning: Important but sometimes unaddressed estate planning issues," including:
- It is important to decide what should happen with any digital assets you have. State laws differ about how digital accounts should be handled and who can have access to them. Make sure your attorney knows what digital accounts you have.
- If you want to make sure your pets are taken care of after you pass away, then you need to let your estate planning attorney know that.
- If you have any dependent adult children still living at home, then you might need to make special plans for them if they are not able to care for themselves.
- You need to make sure that any life insurance policies and retirement accounts have alternate beneficiaries listed in case the first beneficiary predeceases you.
Reference: Lake County News (Nov. 12, 2016) "Estate Planning: Important but sometimes unaddressed estate planning issues."
