Your estate plan is much more likely to be successful when you recognize and avoid the most common mistakes and take some key actions that often are overlooked. Most estate planners will tell you that the same estate planning mistakes and oversights recur with frequency, whether an estate is worth a billion dollars, a few hundred thousand dollars, or something in between.
I’m not going to include the most common mistakes that you already know about: Not having a plan or having an outdated plan. You know a complete plan is needed, and it should be reviewed every couple of years and revised as needed. You also know the plan needs the essential documents: a will, living trust, power of attorney, advance medical directive, and other key features.
Once you’ve taken those basic steps, these additional steps.