What Are The Most Common Estate Planning Mistakes Made by High Net Worth Individuals?

Video Transcription:

We review estate plans all day long and we see common mistakes that occur over and over again so I’m gonna highlight three of them. The first one is I have someone come into the office and say “I’ve done the last will and testament, here it is, so I’m going to avoid probate.” That’s actually not the case. A last will and testament actually means probate. You need to actually set up a revocable living trust and transfer your assets into that trust to avoid probate. The second mistake is I’ve set up a revocable living trust and I’m going to avoid probate. But they haven’t transferred any of their assets into the revocable trust so those assets are going to go through probate when they die. The whole point of the revocable living trust has been destroyed. And then the third major mistake that we see is “I’m giving my children their specific bequest that they’re going to receive outright and not in an inherited trust.” So, it’s not protected from divorce, it’s not protected from judgment creditors, it’s not protected from estate tax and it’s not protected from going to that son-in-law that you never really liked if they die first. You want it to go down to your grandkids. It doesn’t keep it in the bloodline.