Insights

Five Estate Planning Mistakes Families Make, and How to Avoid Them

By Terry L. (T. L.) Turnipseed, J.D., LL.M., CTFA · October 28, 2026

Most estate disputes are not about the law. They arise from surprise, from silence, and from plans that were never finished.

Better Report's Nicole Pyles recently asked me about the estate planning mistakes that create the most trouble for families.¹ Her article covers five, and they match what I see in practice. Here they are, with the reasoning behind each.

1. Having no plan at all

Death without a plan creates confusion and compounding problems: intestacy rules that may not match the family, a court-appointed administrator, and delay at the worst possible time. The less obvious cost is incapacity. Planning early is what preserves choice. Without adequate arrangements already in place, a later loss of capacity may leave the family needing court authority through a guardianship or conservatorship, which transfers decisions about a parent's money and medical care to a judge who has never met the family.

2. Delayed or poor fiduciary selection

Fiduciary selection deserves more thought than it usually receives. The questions are who should receive what, whether any of it should be held in trust rather than distributed outright, and who is both willing and able to serve as executor, trustee, guardian, and agent, with a successor named for each.

Serving as a fiduciary is a job rather than an honor. It carries personal liability and a continuing duty to inform and account to the beneficiaries. The qualities that matter are honesty, financial competence, availability, and a willingness to keep records. Birth order and geography are not qualifications. Ask the person before naming them, name a successor, and make sure both know where the documents are. For larger or more complex estates, a corporate trustee, alone or alongside a family member, is often the better answer.

3. No communication of the plan

A plan that no one knows about may not be carried out as intended. At a minimum, the people named should know they have been named, where the originals are kept, whom to call, and the practical access instructions needed to use the documents in the first week.

Communication also prevents litigation. Most estate contests are not really about the law. They arise from surprise, from a sense that a sibling exercised influence, or from a decision that appeared arbitrary because it was never explained. A parent who tells the children what the plan is, and why, takes most of the fuel out of a later fight. That conversation should be planned with counsel, paying attention to family dynamics and to the risk that a discussion becomes an occasion for pressuring an elderly parent. An informal family understanding, by contrast, is not enforceable and is rarely a sound idea.

4. Not revisiting the documents

A will governs only probate property. Everything that passes by beneficiary designation, joint title, or trust passes outside it. The review that matters, then, is of the whole picture: a schedule of assets and liabilities with recent statements, deeds showing exactly how title is held, life insurance policies, retirement and brokerage accounts with their current beneficiary designations, business and partnership agreements, any prenuptial agreement or divorce instrument, and the existing estate documents. Review primary and contingent beneficiaries after every major life change.

5. Planning for death but not for life

A will does nothing while you are alive. It appoints no one to write a check, renew a lease, file a return, or consent to surgery. Those jobs belong to a durable power of attorney and a health care directive that names an agent, states treatment preferences, and is paired with an authorization allowing that agent to obtain medical information. Digital assets deserve a line of their own: a direction in the will, trust, or power of attorney is what overcomes the terms of the online service agreement, and without it the agent may be locked out of accounts the family needs.

The common thread

Each of these mistakes is a plan left unfinished. The fix is the same in every case: finish it, tell the people who need to know, and look at it again whenever life changes.

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