What are the most significant estate planning mistakes that estate planning attorneys see? Unfortunately, we have sad stories. Moms who leave millions to veterinarians to care for a beloved cat or uncles who grabbed and kept a half-million-dollar insurance policy intended for a son are just a few examples.
When your estate plan isn’t properly prepared, many things can go wrong, according to a recent article from Kiplinger, “Wills Gone Wild: How to Avoid Estate Planning Disasters.” Assets can end up with the wrong people, or beloved children can be disinherited entirely. A bungled do-it-yourself will can lead to a distant cousin inheriting your entire estate, while a life-long partner ends up homeless and impoverished.
If you intend to protect those you love, you’ll need to sit down with an experienced estate planning attorney and create a last will and testament and other estate planning documents. Without a thoughtful plan, you set the table for family discord following your passing.
Aretha Franklin provides one example of an estate planning mistake, with Do-It-Yourself attempts that lead to no formal will. Not one but two handwritten or holographic wills were found in her home in Detroit after she died. One, dated 2010, was found in a locked cabinet, while the second was found under a couch cushion, dated 2014. There were four sons, and all disagreed about which one was valid. The matter went to court, with a judge ruling the 2014 will was valid. Not all states accept holographic wills, and leaving more than one copy around the home doesn’t guarantee anything but a family fight and legal expenses.
Many people are testing online wills. However, the unintended consequences are very costly for loved ones. One father’s estate planning mistake was deciding he would create an online will without an estate planning attorney. When he died, instead of dividing his estate equally between three adult children, all his property and assets went to the children and the grandchildren. Each of his three children had children, so what he intended to be a simple three-way split was divided into many small gifts.
Second and subsequent marriages can complicate estates. Estate planning attorneys all have stories about remarried people who want their estate to go to the new spouse but forget to take care of their children from the first marriage. When the second spouse inherits the entire estate, it’s easy to rewrite the will, and the deceased spouse’s kids are disinherited. A surviving spouse is under no legal obligation to maintain an old will or to give assets to stepchildren. Estate planning attorneys know how to use trusts and other strategies to protect the surviving spouse and the biological children.
Pets are often part of estate planning disasters. One attorney tells the tale of a client estranged from her only child, a daughter. She wanted to leave everything in her estate to her cats. However, something went very wrong, and her veterinarian inherited $3.5 million. In this case, the vet was an upstanding citizen and worked with an estate planning attorney to ensure any monies left after the death of the cats went to animal charities. However, there was no legal requirement for the vet to do so.
Elderly people are often preyed upon by their trusted caretakers. One horror story concerned two elderly men who lived together and shared a home care nurse. When one of the men was hospitalized, the caretaker and her husband came to the home and exploited the second man. The caregiver convinced the elderly man to make her a beneficiary of a $500,000 CD and joint owner of a lakefront vacation home.
When it comes to estate planning, the best bet to avoid a nightmare legacy is to meet with an experienced estate planning attorney and have an estate plan created. Estate planning attorneys have seen more wild tales than you can imagine and can ensure you don’t become one of them.
Reference: Kiplinger (Jan. 29, 2025) “Wills Gone Wild: How to Avoid Estate Planning Disasters”
