Signed, Sealed, and Overlooked: The Items Most People Forget

When was the last time you reviewed your estate planning documents? Life is busy and brings changes over time. If you haven’t recently reviewed your estate planning documents, pull them out and check them against this list.

Read more about the Most Essential Estate Planning Documents.

1. Retirement Accounts. Do you have a 401k, IRA, or a pension? Make sure you include it in your will. The Center for Retirement Research reported this year that approximately 31.9 million 401(k) accounts have not been claimed by their owners. That leaves behind about $2.1 trillion.
2. Business Succession Plan. Business owners often focus on growing their business and their revenue, but what happens if they die unexpectedly or become incapacitated? Put together the types of agreements or plans your company and your family would need should it, and they, have to carry on without you. Consider an operating agreement, a buy-sell agreement, and a business continuity plan.
3. Special Needs Planning. Does your household include a member with special needs? The right kind of planning preserves your loved one’s right to government benefits and supplemental care. This includes minor children, adult members, and older adults. Talk to your estates and trusts attorney about special needs trusts, ABLE accounts, and supported decision-making, as well as specific details about medical care, social support, and continuity of care.
4. Financial Power of Attorney. Appoint a trusted person with the necessary financial acumen required to handle your financial affairs should you become incapacitated.
5. Pet Guardian. Choose someone to care for your pets should you die or become incapacitated. Make sure to include provision for that person to ensure continuity of care for your pets.
6. Beneficiaries. Review them regularly when you review your estate planning documents. Are your wishes still the same? If not, have your attorney draft an updated will.
7. Alternative Beneficiaries. Should your designated beneficiaries predecease you, to whom would you leave your assets? Spell out your wishes.
8. Trustees. Likewise with your designated trustee: Do your former designations remain the same? Is the person you’ve designated the person you would choose today? If your chosen trustee predeceased you, who would you name to act on your behalf?
9. Non-probate Asset Beneficiaries. Remember to review the beneficiaries you’ve named to your retirement account, your life insurance, your annuity, and your investment portfolio.
10. Personal, Heirloom, and Sentimental Items. While these items may not be of great financial value, they may have tangible, irreplaceable connections to you, to your family, and to your personal ancestry. Making specific bequests of these items will make your wishes known and ensure those items go to the people you designate. Such items may include jewelry, photo albums, holiday decorations, dishes, kitchen tools, clothing, handbags, antiques, collectibles, paintings, coins, and other keepsakes.
11. Funeral and Burial Instructions. Making these specific and easily accessible to your family ensures your wishes are carried out and gives clear guidance to your executor and family at a difficult time. Make sure to include any pre-arranged or pre-paid funeral and burial plans.
12. Automobiles. Personal automobiles are often left out of estate plans. Talk to your attorney about the best way to transfer your auto upon your demise. That might include a transfer-on-death registration or obtaining a joint title in advance.
13. Digital Assets and Passwords. With the amount of online transactions we do every day, wrapping up an estate requires a significant investment in time. Consider appointing a digital executor to handle your email accounts, your social media, your digital photos, your online subscriptions, your cryptocurrency, your online businesses, and your websites. Remember to include your usernames and passwords.
14. Debts Owed to You. Make sure to include promissory notes or other papers documenting money owed to you.
15. Specific Disinheritance Clause. If you plan to exclude anyone from your will, make sure you spell this out. Without explicit language, that person may contest your will and even be successful, thus removing your assets from your intended beneficiaries.

Need help with estate and trust planning? Contact an experienced attorney today at Sussan Greenwald & Wesler:

609-409-3500

Further Reading:

• Trust Basics for Trustees and Beneficiaries
• Estate Planning for Blended Families in New Jersey
• Planning for a Child with Disabilities as They Turn 18 in New Jersey