Most people approach estate planning with one question: How do I set up who gets what after I pass? It is a reasonable place to start, but for families with meaningful wealth, this is the wrong place to finish.
The question of distribution is actually the last question a thorough estate plan answers, not the first. Before you decide who inherits what, you need to understand what forces could erode, expose, or destroy that wealth before it has a chance to reach the next generation.
At Gateville Law Firm, our Plano, IL estate planning attorney takes a risk-management approach to estate planning for affluent families. If you want to find out whether your current plan is built to withstand real-world stress, schedule a Family Wealth Preservation Meeting.
What Are the Biggest Risks That Estate Plans Fail to Address?
The families that come to our office are not careless people. Many of them already have documents such as wills, trusts, or powers of attorney drafted years ago. Some have been told by their accountant or financial advisor that they are covered. What they often discover is that having documents is not the same thing as having a plan that actually works.