Many mistakes, errors, and overlooked issues could limit the possible impact of your estate plan. When you don’t understand each document and strategy inside your estate plan, this may not necessarily reflect your wishes. If your estate plan cannot be executed for any reason, it is underutilized.Close up of a typewriter with the words estate planning typed out

Hiring an Estate Planning Lawyer to Help

A thorough review can be accomplished by sitting down with an estate planning lawyer. That’s one way to walk through each of the selected strategies and verify that it aligns with your individual needs. You need to understand the estate planning process and be clear about any execution related steps, such as funding a trust that may be necessary to make your estate plan fully effective.

Sometimes you may not make use of an estate plan after you have signed the document. This most frequently relates to the creation of trusts, which allow some third party to hold assets on behalf of beneficiaries. You must retitle those assets to properly fund them into the trust, otherwise this strategy is not working as intended. The only way to be sure that you understand the intention behind creating a specific component of your estate plan, and the action steps to make it usable is to work with a qualified estate planning lawyer.

Document Your Estate Plan Now

An estate planning lawyer should sit down with you during an initial meeting to discuss your primary concerns, questions and considerations around the process, and then create a plan that aligns with those. Strategies and tools that are not needed to accomplish your individual estate planning goals can simply clutter things up and lead to further confusion down the road. Contact a Massachusetts estate planning lawyer to learn more about how the process works and to discuss what is most important to you.

 

 


Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this content does not create an attorney-client relationship. For legal advice specific to your situation, please consult with a qualified attorney.

Tiffany A. O'Connell, JD, LLM, CELA, AEP

About Tiffany A. O'Connell, JD, LLM, CELA, AEP

Tiffany A. O'Connell, JD, LLM, CELA, AEP is the CEO and Founding Partner of O'Connell Law, an estate planning and elder law firm serving clients across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. She is one of a select group of attorneys in Massachusetts certified by the National Elder Law Foundation as a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA). Tiffany focuses her practice on estate planning, trust and probate administration, Medicaid planning, long-term care planning, Alzheimer's planning, charitable planning, and retirement and wealth strategies. She has been helping families plan for their futures since opening her practice in 2010.

Credentials: JD, LLM, CELA (Certified Elder Law Attorney — National Elder Law Foundation), AEP (Accredited Estate Planner)

Licensed in: Massachusetts

Areas of Practice: Estate Planning, Elder Law, Medicaid Planning, Probate & Trust Administration, Alzheimer's Planning, Asset Protection

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