Estate planning is one of those areas where people tend to assume that having a plan is the same as having a good plan. It is not. For individuals and families with significant assets, the gap between a plan that technically exists and one that actually works can be considerable — and the consequences of that gap are felt entirely by the people you intended to protect.
These are the five mistakes we see most often, and what each one costs.
1. Treating the Estate Plan as a One-Time Event
The most common mistake is also the simplest: drafting an estate plan, signing it, and never looking at it again.
Life changes. Tax law changes. Assets are acquired and disposed of. Children are born. Marriages end. Beneficiaries predecease you. A plan drafted ten years ago may reflect a financial picture and family structure that no longer exists.
We recommend reviewing your estate plan after any major life event — marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a named executor or beneficiary, a significant change in assets, or a move to another state. At minimum, every three to five years. The cost of a review is modest. The cost of discovering outdated provisions after death is not.
2. Failing to Coordinate Beneficiary Designations
Many significant assets — retirement accounts, life insurance policies, annuities — pass outside of your will or trust entirely. They go directly to whoever is named as beneficiary on file with the financial institution, regardless of what your will says.
This creates problems when beneficiary designations are outdated. A divorced spouse named as beneficiary on a 401(k) fifteen years ago may still receive those assets if the designation was never updated. A trust carefully drafted to protect a minor child may be bypassed entirely if the account names that child directly rather than the trust.
Coordinating beneficiary designations with the overall estate plan is not optional — it is fundamental. Every significant account should be reviewed alongside the plan itself.
3. Underestimating the Role of Trusts
A will alone is often insufficient for individuals with significant assets. Wills go through probate — a court-supervised process that is public, time-consuming, and in some cases costly. Trusts avoid probate entirely, providing both efficiency and privacy.
Beyond probate avoidance, trusts serve critical planning functions: protecting assets from creditors, providing for beneficiaries with special needs, controlling the timing and conditions of distributions to children, and facilitating multigenerational wealth transfer with appropriate tax planning.
Many clients come to us with a will but no trust — or with a revocable living trust that was never actually funded. An unfunded trust is a trust that does not work. Assets must be transferred into the trust during your lifetime for it to function as intended.
4. Ignoring the Tax Dimension
For individuals with larger estates, federal and state estate taxes can represent a significant transfer cost at death. New York imposes its own estate tax with a much lower exemption than the federal threshold — meaning estates that would owe nothing federally may still face a meaningful New York tax.
Lifetime gifting strategies, irrevocable trusts, charitable planning, and other techniques can significantly reduce estate tax exposure when implemented thoughtfully and in advance. These strategies require time to be effective — they cannot be deployed at the last moment.
Tax law in this area is subject to change, and the current federal exemption levels are not permanent. Planning for multiple scenarios, rather than optimizing for today’s law alone, is the more prudent approach.
5. Not Planning for Incapacity
Estate planning is often thought of as planning for death. It is equally important as planning for incapacity.
Without a durable power of attorney, a trusted person cannot manage your financial affairs if you become unable to do so yourself — without going to court for a guardianship appointment, which is expensive, time-consuming, and public. Without a healthcare proxy, medical decisions may fall to people you would not have chosen.
These documents are not morbid — they are practical. They ensure that if you are incapacitated, the people you trust are empowered to act on your behalf without delay or court intervention.
The Common Thread
Each of these mistakes shares the same root: treating estate planning as a transaction rather than an ongoing relationship with qualified counsel. The clients who are best protected are those who revisit their plans regularly, communicate openly about changes in their lives and assets, and work with an attorney who understands the full picture.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult qualified legal counsel regarding your specific circumstances.