My Estate Planning is Complete: What Now?

You might assume that after you’ve taken the care to sit down with a knowledgeable estate planning attorney and articulate all of the relevant documents like a trust, a will and powers of attorney that your estate planning work is done and that all basis have been covered. Bear in mind that there are certain steps you should take after completing the official estate planning process.

You will want to keep any advisors including the person who is named as your personal representative or executor aware of issues associated with your estate. The only way to do this is to put together materials of your own to protect such an individual and empower him or her with relevant information after you pass away.

Some of the most important things you can do to push this goal along include:

•       A list of all individuals to contact.
•       Contact details for estate beneficiaries.
•       A copy of your current personal balance sheet of liabilities and assets.
•       Details about beneficiary designations for annuities, retirement assets and life insurance policies.
•       Location of the necessary estate planning documents and others such as your life insurance policy.
•       Details about your digital asset inventory complete with login and password details.
•       Instructions regarding your personal business affairs, your individual children and your funeral and burial desires. These materials, in particular, should be explained to the individual who will be serving in this capacity well in advance because he or she may have to make quick work of scheduling these items after you pass away.