When someone calls an estate planning attorney asking for a "quick look" at their documents, the request usually sounds straightforward. Maybe the documents were created using an online service, and they want to “just be sure” the documents are sound. Perhaps there's been a move to a new state and a question about whether the plan still works. Or maybe the documents are a few (or more) years old, and there's uncertainty about whether they're still valid. Most people expect a simple yes or no answer, preferably during a brief phone call or quick and cheap consultation.
The reality is that there's no such thing as a simple document review when it comes to estate planning. What seems like a straightforward question actually opens a myriad of legal, financial, and personal considerations that require thorough analysis and consideration, if you want to ensure your plan doesn’t fail the people you love.
This article explores why an estate plan review requires more depth than you may expect, what a proper review actually involves, and why investing in a review of your plan now can save your loved ones from extremely costly problems later.
The Hidden Complexity Behind Document Reviews
When someone asks an attorney to review estate planning documents, they're really asking several interconnected questions that affect their and their loved ones’ future security. Each question requires careful analysis, and skipping any of them could create a legal mess later that may be costly and time-consuming to resolve.
Here are the steps an attorney should take:
Determine whether the documents are legally valid under current law and in your jurisdiction. State laws, federal and tax laws change frequently. What was legally valid when documents were originally created might not meet today's requirements - or were never valid to begin with (especially if you’ve drafted the documents yourself). For example, you likely don’t know that most banks and brokerage houses will not accept a power of attorney signed more than 3 years prior, and some even more recent. That means your loved ones could have no access to your assets in the event of your incapacity.
If you’ve moved from one state to another, an analysis of how you want your plan to work and whether it does under your new state’s law could require a chunk of attorney time.
Tax laws may also impact your plan, and the attorney will need to determine whether your plan should be amended to take advantage of tax strategies that may apply now.
These kinds of reviews could cost more in attorney time than it would to simply create a new plan from scratch.Evaluate whether the plan actually accomplishes what you think it does. Many people believe they have a complete estate plan when they actually have significant gaps. This is especially a problem when you create a set of documents and think you’ve created a whole plan. This is almost never the case.
Gaps in your estate plan may include whether the plan addresses the following:
What happens if a primary beneficiary dies before you do - both in your plan documents and your beneficiary policies
Whether minor children have been protected from receiving large inheritances before they're mature enough to handle money responsibly
Whether the plan accounts for the possibility of incapacity, not just death
Whether your loved ones know where to find all your assets, so none get lost
Whether your loved ones know how to access your passwords
If you have enough insurance to ensure your loved ones don’t end up in financial stress
If accounts will be accessible to your loved ones after you die, so that bills continue to get paid
These are just some of the gaps that need to be addressed. It’s not an exhaustive list.
Assess whether the documents work together as a cohesive plan or create conflicts that could lead to expensive and time-consuming court battles.
There are cases where someone's will says one thing, their trust says another, and their beneficiary designations contradict both.
When conflicts exist, families will end up in court, while a judge, a complete stranger to you and your loved ones, decides what you really meant. It’s possible no one is happy with the outcome, especially if they’ve spent thousands of dollars and years in court.
But the complexity doesn't stop there. Even perfectly drafted documents can fail if a critical step in the planning process was overlooked.
The BIG Problem Nobody Talks About
Here's something that catches almost everyone by surprise: if you’ve created a trust, it will not work if assets haven't been properly transferred into it and beneficiary designations or TOD or POD forms have not been completed properly. In the world of estate planning, we call this “funding”, and it is where most trust plans completely fail (even if you worked with a lawyer to create your legal documents).
You could spend thousands on a will, trust, health care directive and power of attorney, all delivered to you in a beautiful binder, all of which becomes worthless because your lawyer didn’t have a process to ensure you changed the title on your bank accounts, your house, or your investment accounts, and doesn’t have a system to ensure that new assets are titled properly when acquired in the future. And, it’s not just titling, but beneficiary designations that need to be reviewed and updated regularly. Finally, the mere fact that the assets exist should really be inventoried at least annually.
Reviewing whether an estate plan is properly funded requires examining title documents, account statements, beneficiary designations, and business documents. An attorney needs to verify that each asset is titled correctly and that beneficiary designations align with the overall plan. This isn't a five-minute task. A review requires methodical analysis of the entire financial picture.
Consider this common scenario: someone creates a trust with careful instructions for how assets should be divided among family members, but their life insurance policy still names their spouse as the sole beneficiary. When they die, the insurance payout goes directly to the spouse, bypassing the trust entirely. That money could end up with a future spouse or stepchildren rather than the children the plan was designed to protect. A thorough review would have caught this conflict while it could still be fixed easily.
This is exactly why attorneys can't offer quick, surface-level reviews. There is a lot of time and resource allocation that must go into each review - even if you think your situation is simple.
Why Cutting Corners Creates Liability
When someone asks an attorney to "just quickly review" documents, they're asking for legal advice based on incomplete information. Attorneys can't responsibly do that. If an attorney says a plan looks fine after a cursory review, and it later turns out there were serious problems that weren't caught, you (or your family) may have a case against the attorney for malpractice. More importantly, your loved ones could suffer significant financial harm that proper planning would have prevented.
Professional responsibility to you, the client, requires that your attorney either perform a thorough review or decline to review documents at all. There's no middle ground that protects you. This means the attorney must examine documents in detail, ask questions about your family dynamics and assets, research how current laws apply to your specific circumstances, and provide an analysis of findings. This process requires time, expertise, and an associated cost.
While the investment in a thorough review might seem like more than you thought it should, it pales in comparison to what you and your loved ones face when inadequate planning fails at the worst possible time. By then, it will be too late to fix.
What to Reasonably Expect
The consultation fee for a thorough review might seem expensive until it's compared to what families will spend if an inadequate plan fails. Probate proceedings typically cost thousands of dollars and take a year or more. Legal battles between family members over unclear provisions can cost tens of thousands. The emotional toll of watching loved ones fight over an estate while grieving a loss is incalculable.
If you want to ensure you have a complete plan that works for you and your loved ones, saves money, keeps them out of court and conflict, and protects your minor children if you were no longer able to raise them, you should expect to pay at least $1,000 for a comprehensive review of your plan - including an inventory of all your assets, what matters to you, and a review of all of your documents - no matter how “easy” you think your situation may be (in my experience almost everyone thinks their circumstances are easy, but almost never are). Expect to fill out a questionnaire, or complete some “homework” for the attorney before you meet, and expect that the attorney will spend time preparing to meet with you, and hours to review your current documents, financial information, and statements, the status of trust finding, meet with you, and offer counsel based on the analysis of your current plan. If you need or want to make updates, there will be an additional cost.
How We Support You and Your Loved Ones
A comprehensive review is not about the documents themselves. It’s about investing in peace of mind, knowing your loved ones will be cared for according to your wishes, without unnecessary legal complications, family conflict, or financial waste. It’s about making sure no assets are lost, your loved ones have financial stability, your children aren't taken into the care of strangers, and your family knows what to do when the time comes.
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This article is a service of a Personal Family Lawyer Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That's why we offer a Life & Legacy PlanningⓇ Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.
The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer® for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.