Do you have a complete estate plan in place?

So, you have all your estate documents completed and you think, “When something happens, I have everything taken care of, so no worries.”

I hope so!  But do you know what these documents really take care of?  Does your family know how to use them appropriately?  Does your family even know where they are?  Completing estate documents and planning for what happens after a death is confusing, laborious and can be overwhelming for your family.

Here is a family that we have worked with and the experience they had with their “complete estate plan” documents.

The husband passed away at the end of the year and the surviving spouse hired our company to assist her with closing his estate, getting many different issues resolved and numerous services into her name.

One month later she passed away as well.  That left the extended out-of-town family to handle both estates.  When the family members were in town for the funeral, we met with them to review the status of the first estate.  They quickly discovered how much work was left on the first estate and now, the additional work needed to close the second estate.  Without hesitation they hired our services.

After reviewing a copy of the trust we quickly realized that it had not been properly funded and there were no named successor trustees.

Because our firm can’t work with anyone other than the legal representatives of the estate, everything was at a standstill.  I informed the family they would have to hire an attorney, that there may be the possibility of probate and that we could assist them when the legal requirements were met.

Needless to say, after several thousand dollars and a delay of about 4 weeks, the original “original complete estate documents” were ruled “null & void” and the “new estate documents” were now in place.

This is just one example, of many, where families were sure everything was in place.  In this case, it not only cost weeks of unnecessary delays, it also cost thousands of dollars more.

Even when you think everything is in place, there will always be issues that haven’t been thought of and the emotional component which may, at times, weigh very heavily on everything until this job is done. 

If you want to help your family with the estate closure process, make sure your estate documents are really complete and suggest they hire a professional to assist them with the details after death.  It can save the headaches that can come from the heartache of the loss.  

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