Estate Planning Basics Attorney in Phoenix, Arizona

Risks of Not Planning: What are the biggest risks of not having an estate plan?

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I would say the biggest risk if you don’t do an estate plan is that your assets will go where you don’t intend them to go. Many people really don’t understand the estate planning process and don’t appreciate that even they even have a will they have property that’s not subject to that will because they call it non-probate property because it will pass by operation of law such as joint tenancy of the right of survivorship or they may have designated beneficiaries on their 401k or their IRA and those pass outside the will. And if they’ve not followed up on that, it easily could pass to someone they don’t want it to including an ex-spouse and there’s been a lot of case law on that as well. Even with a trust, a lot of people have a trust but they fail to fund it. So they fail to recognize that the primary reason that you’ve got a trust is to stay out of court by appropriately funding it with all of your significant assets.

Phoenix, AZ estate planning attorney Chikk Myers talks about why it’s important to set up an estate plan and having a trust with all significant assets.

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