To help implement your wishes, trusts and estate lawyers need to ask very tough questions. Some of them might make you squirm.
Have you made (or updated) your estate plan? What questions about your estate planning (or lack thereof) are most likely to make you squirm?
A recent article in Forbes tackled this question. The article, titled 12 Estate Planning Questions That Might Make You Squirm, offered 12 questions to ask yourself.
Here they are:
- Who will raise your children if both parents die?
- What if you all die in a common disaster?
- Are there any other descendants you haven’t yet mentioned?
- Have you told me about all the important relationships in your life?
- Do you have any genetic material on ice?
- Are you transgender?
- Have you ever made large gifts to others?
- Who is going to take care of your pets?
- When do you want the plug pulled?
10. What are your passwords, usernames and security questions?
11. Did you enter into a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement or did you sign a community property agreement?
12. Have you had any serious or chronic health issues?
Admittedly, this is an interesting array of questions and not all of these questions may apply to you. However, the point is to make a sober self-assessment of your current estate planning goals against the backdrop of the planning you have made (or would like to make). An experienced estate planning attorney can help you through this process, and perhaps even reveal some “blind spots” of which you were unaware.
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Reference: Forbes (July 24, 2012) “12 Estate Planning Questions That Might Make You Squirm”