How to Take Your Estate Plan Off Script

Estate Planning

May 5

You can follow all the estate planning rules and still end up with the wrong plan. In this episode, Jill walks through a question from a young attorney who’s been handed traditional estate planning forms and is wondering whether they actually serve her clients. Jill break down how a standard trust structure can limit flexibility for families who don’t need estate tax planning, and how small adjustments can make a big difference. Estate planning isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about building something that works.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

What a traditional Family Trust / Marital Trust estate planning structure is and why it’s so commonly used
Why many families today don’t need estate tax planning, even though their documents assume they do
The tradeoff between tax planning and flexibility for a surviving spouse
A simple rule: the more control you have over an asset, the more likely it is to be included in your taxable estate
Why an estate plan can technically “work” and still miss your actual goals
How directing assets to a Marital Trust can provide more flexibility in certain situations
What a Disclaimer Trust is and how it can build in estate planning flexibility for future law changes
Why estate planning should account for human behavior, not just legal theory