Team Approach To Estate Planning

You can accomplish more effective estate planning with a team approach. Attorneys, accountants, and planners can all work together to be sure that you take full advantage of benefits and avoid costly mistakes.

Though the team approach might be the ultimate goal for thorough estate planning, testators rarely utilize a team of planners. Some wealth management firms offer 10% off of the customer’s next quarterly bill if they will get together with an estate planning team, but the meetings still do not happen as often as the clients would like.

It is important for attorneys to offer clients options for more complex plans and for simple plans that may be more suited to their desires. One of the benefits of having a team of advisors is having several different experts in different areas express concepts from unique angles. Clients are more likely to attach to one of these varied explanations so that they can get the most out of their estate plan.

See Martin Shenkman, Come Together: The Merits of the Team Approach to Estate Planning, Financial Planning Magazine, Sept. 1, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.