National Make-A-Will Month gives financial advisors a timely reason to raise estate planning with clients. The existence of a month with this designation is a great hook to start a conversation. But for a sophisticated advisory practice, the conversation shouldn’t stop with “Do you have a will?” That question is necessary, but it’s too narrow. The better question is whether the client has a coordinated plan that will work during incapacity, at death and for the beneficiaries who will inherit.
Financial advisors are often better positioned than other advisors to identify implementation disconnects. Advisors see account titles, beneficiary designations, insurance coverage, liquidity, spending, family changes and account transfers. Those are the places where many estate plans succeed or fail. A client may have excellent documents but still have an ineffective plan if brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, joint accounts and transfer-on-death designations are inconsistent with those documents.
Financial advisors don’t need to practice law to improve estate-planning outcomes. They need to identify implementation gaps, ask better questions and coordinate with counsel. The goal isn’t merely to help clients make a will. The goal is to help clients build, fund, maintain and periodically stress-test a comprehensive plan that protects the client and those they care about.
Here are the 10 ways advisors can help get the conversation started and move the plan forward.
