To create the best possible estate plan, it is critical to not only tell your advisor important information about your case. It is also critical to be honest. Failure to honestly disclose information about your financial status can lead to a number of serious complications and can sometimes even require your advisor to perform estate planning all over again. Unfortunately, there are a number of important things that people forget to disclose their estate planning advisor, which is why this article will list some of the important things that you should remember to mention.
# 1 – Family Issues
Many people with challenging family issues can find these matters difficult to discuss even though they have the potential to greatly interfere with a person’s estate plans. Often, an experienced estate planning attorney can help create estate plans that take these issues into considerations. For example, in situations where a person has an adult child with substance abuse, it might be possible to create a trust or other type of estate planning device to pass assets to the child. In deciding whether details should be disclosed to an estate planning lawyer, it is important to inform an estate planning advisor about any former spouses, any child support that you pay, any existing legal agreements in your family, or any relationships that you might have that could lead to financial obligations.
# 2 – Health Issues
It can be particularly difficult to discuss a person’s eventual death, which is why many people are hesitant to discuss details about their health with an estate planning advisor. If you have a history of a deadly disease or affected by any other type of health condition, it is important to disclose these details to your advisor. By sharing these details about your health, however, an attorney can take these issues into consideration when performing estate planning.
# 3 – Undisclosed Assets
It is critical to mention any assets that you own to your estate planning advisor. This is because some assets receive different tax treatments than other amounts. Failing to adequately disclose assets could also result in complications for how existing assets should be handled. Consequently, failure to adequately disclose assets will often have a substantial impact on the ability to create an estate plan. In deciding whether to disclose details about assets, you should make sure to mention any alimony that you might receive, life insurance policies you have, or real estate that you own.
Speak with an Experienced Estate Planning Lawyer
If you are not certain about whether you should mention something to your estate planning lawyer, it is often the best idea to mention these facts and let your attorney decide whether the information is important. An experienced estate planning attorney will then listen to your concerns and inform you about how your condition will affect your estate plans. If you need the assistance of an experienced estate planning, do not hesitate to contact Ettinger Estate Planning today to schedule a free initial consultation.