The Estate Planning Mistake That Could Leave Your Family With Nothing

Estate planning is less about money than making life easier for the people you care about most. PeopleImages/ShutterstockA friend’s father passed away last spring with $1.2 million in assets and no will. No trust, no beneficiary designations updated since the 1990s, no power of attorney documents. His ex-wife—not his current partner of 15 years—was still listed as the beneficiary on his life insurance and retirement accounts. Change your beneficiary designations as soon as a life situation changes.The result: his partner, the woman who cared for him through two years of illness, received nothing. His adult children spent 14 months in probate court fighting over assets that should have been distributed in weeks. Legal fees consumed over $80,000. Family relationships that had been close for decades were destroyed.