Many people make a fundamental mistake in putting together their estate plans.  They think that their estate planning is complete if they have a Will.  They fail to appreciate that their Wills may have very little impact on who gets what after they are gone.  For many of us, most of our assets will pass to our heirs based upon how those assets are owned and how beneficiary forms have been set up.   No matter what your Will says, your retirement accounts, annuities, life insurance policies, and possibly some of your mutual funds and bank accounts will pass according to their beneficiary designations, not your Will.  Assets that are owned jointly with another person may pass by right of survivorship.  Your Will may be irrelevant. 

To create an estate plan that meets your goals, you need to make certain that your assets are properly titled and your beneficiary designations are correct.  Then you need to have your lawyer draft a Will that fits in with the rest of your plan.  Your estate plan is like a jigsaw puzzle.  Everything needs to fit together if your plan is to meet your goals.    If any parts of the puzzle are missing, your family will end up with an ugly picture. 

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