Don’t Believe These 10 Myths About Estate Planning

In my experience, estate planning is one of the areas of personal finance with the most widespread confusion. Unfortunately, this can lead to costly mistakes in time, money, and stress on people’s families. Here are ten of the estate planning myths I hear most often:

1) Estate planning is just for the wealthy. This myth comes from the focus of so many attorneys and financial advisers on the federal estate tax, which isn’t an issue until your estate surpasses $12,920,000, an amount that most of us would characterize as pretty well-off, if not downright rich. This focus makes sense for estate planning professionals since so much of their business is centered on the estate tax, but estate planning is also about making sure that your finances are taken care of if you’re incapacitated, that decisions about your health care are carried out the way you’d like even if you’re not able to make them, and that your children and other heirs are taken care of when that time eventually comes. Estate planning is for anyone who may become seriously ill or pass away. In other words, it’s for everyone.