Nine Estate Planning Tips to Avoid Family Strife

All good wealth management includes estate planning as a component. Changes in the tax laws, modern trust conventions and family changes make periodic reviews of estate plans a real necessity. While the contemplation of a client's demise is never at the top of anyone’s list, there is satisfaction from the feeling that you have taken care of issues and that your client has provided for their loved ones. But unwitting mistakes can wreck a client's careful planning and even lead to family fighting and estrangement. 

Here are nine estate planning tips you can give clients to make sure their family stays together after their gone. 

Barbara S. Wahl is a Complex Litigation partner at Arent Fox in Washington, DC, focusing on trust and estate dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration and litigation. 

Holly M. Bastian is an Estates & Trusts partner at Arent Fox in Washington, DC and focuses her practice on the preservation of wealth and the transfer of that wealth from generation to generation.