As a Master Certified Estate Planner™ and Managing Partner at Advisor EP, my role is to help identify these gaps before they become costly problems for families. We work closely with clients and their professional team to review ownership structures, beneficiary designations, trust funding, and business succession considerations to help ensure the estate plan functions as intended.
Estate planning is not a one-time event. It requires ongoing review and coordination as assets, businesses, laws, and family dynamics evolve. By proactively addressing these issues, we help clients create confidence that their wishes, assets, and legacy will ultimately be protected.
Mass affluent clients face unique challenges when establishing and managing trusts for their estates. Many worry about whether their trusts are structured correctly and maintained properly over time. This article features insights from fiduciary advisors who explain practical strategies to address these common estate planning concerns.
Ensure Proper Trust Setup and Maintenance At Advisors EP
One of the biggest estate planning concerns I encounter with mass affluent clients is incomplete trust funding and poor plan maintenance. Interestingly, clients rarely come to me expressing concern about it because most assume their estate plan was fully funded when they signed the documents. In reality, that is often far from the case.
During our review process, we routinely uncover trusts that were never fully funded, real estate left outside the trust, outdated or missing beneficiary designations, life insurance policies without contingent owners, underfunded accounts, and closely held businesses lacking succession plans or the proper documentation necessary to keep business assets out of probate. In my experience, the majority of clients with existing estate plans have not properly completed or maintained their trust funding.
Unfortunately, even well-drafted estate documents can fail to accomplish their intended purpose if assets are not aligned correctly. The protections clients believe they have—avoiding probate, preserving privacy, protecting beneficiaries, and ensuring efficient wealth transfer—can be easily undermined by incomplete implementation.
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