Avoid These 10 Common Estate Strategy Mistakes
Legacy preparation can play a key role in any financial strategy. Legacy management lets you consider what happens to everything you’ve accumulated—and may continue to accumulate—throughout your lifetime. But far too often, we’ve seen this as something that gets overlooked. In a 2024 survey, Caring.com found that less than one-third of Americans had wills.
Often, people lack an estate strategy for several valid reasons: they don’t know how to get started, believe it’s a complicated process, or don’t think they have enough assets to need one.
Whether you’re newly married, starting a family, or nearing retirement, an estate strategy may be on your mind. We have helped clients craft legacy strategies for their families, and we want to share our experience and hopefully help you navigate some missteps we have seen others make over the years.
Here are 10 common estate management mistakes we’ve seen people make: Here are 10 common estate management mistakes we’ve seen people make:
1. Not having a comprehensive estate strategy
The biggest mistake many make is not having a strategy for their estates in the first place.1
According to one recent survey, only 32% of Americans have a will—the most basic document—in 2024, a 6% decline from last year.2 Some say they never got around to it, while others believe creating an estate strategy is only for the wealthy.
Without a comprehensive estate approach, your assets may not be distributed according to your wishes, and your family may face conflicts at a difficult time. Without a well-thought-out strategy, the legacy you spent a lifetime building may not be passed on as you intend.
Helping manage potential mistakes starts with a phone call. Many of our clients work with an estate team that includes an estate attorney and a certified financial account. A financial professional with a detailed understanding of your personal finance strategy can be a great addition to the team.
2. Not having additional documents, such as a Financial Power of Attorney or an Advance Health Care Directive.3
A will defines your wishes after you pass. It includes naming your executor for your estate and outlining what you’d like to happen to minors or anyone else requiring guardianship (such as someone with special needs). A will also describe how you want your property and other assets distributed.
A Financial Power of Attorney assigns someone the power to make financial decisions for you, such as signing documents or making financial decisions, should you become incapacitated or otherwise unable to do so yourself. Without it, if a person becomes incapacitated, the family can face difficulties when deciding how to support their loved one.
An Advance Health Care Directive empowers the person you designate to make decisions about your medical treatment, including end-of-life care. In addition, this document often specifies what care and decisions you wish for in certain medical situations. Having a document that lays out your wishes can be seen as an act of love because it removes some of the burden from your loved ones.
