Probate court serves to establish the validity of a will and process the settling of debts and distribution of assets, investments, business interests and property for the deceased. Probate varies from state to state, but there are several common risks of which clients should be aware.

First of all, probate is costly and will immediately devalue an estate. Boren-Coleman Sexton estimates that depending on the state, probate will cost roughly 5 percent of the decedent’s estate.

Secondly, probate can take years to conclude depending on familial circumstances.

Finally, what happens in probate is a public matter. That means anyone off the street can trifle through documentation outlining all of your assets and financials, including outstanding debts and the names of those who will inherit your client’s assets.

They say in life you should always have a backup plan. The same is true after you die.

Both estate experts we spoke with are proponents of multiple contingencies in estate documents, which might mean planning for unlikely and unimaginable scenarios, such as a trustee dying before the author of the estate plan. It’s always a good idea to name several backup trustees and, as a final resort, a professional or financial institution, according to the professionals.

“Why not put it in writing?” Palley has posited to clients. “Why not be specific? It doesn't cost any extra to add another sentence or two. So let’s put it down ... life changes.”

Boren-Coleman Sexton offered a couple of other examples.

“How about creating an education trust for beneficiaries that are incredibly young to give them that type of opportunity?” she suggested. “Or how about creating plans if an individual somehow becomes addicted to some type of substance—alcohol, narcotics—let’s create a plan for them. It may not be happening now, but it could happen down the road.”

Whether it be a family heirloom, a collection, a book of photographs or a journal filled with memories, we all have items that are significant to us but wouldn’t necessarily look important to someone else. Your estate plan gives you the opportunity to not only think about the big stuff but also to put in writing all the little things that you’d like carried out in a certain way.

In Boren-Coleman Sexton’s experience, clients often neglect or forget about these items that hold a lot of personal meaning yet aren’t high in monetary value.

The Center to Advance Palliative Care defines palliative care as “specialized medical care for people with serious illness … focused on providing relief from symptoms and stress of a serious illness.”

“Palliative care is basically making them comfortable, keeping them in their homes and all of these things can be prescribed specifically in an advanced healthcare directive that’s crafted to them as an individual,” said Boren-Coleman Sexton, who described palliative care as being part of a modern era of estate planning. “You can get incredibly specific when it comes to this. ‘If I’m not eating, then I want to have some kind of nutrition services; I want to make sure that I’m given things such as ice chips.’”

Now that we store everything about our lives online—including our credit cards, paychecks, insurance policies, retirement savings and bills—it can be particularly difficult for a family to navigate and settle all of a person’s financial accounts after they die.

Two things can make this easier: The first is consolidating accounts over the course of your lifetime (ditch that credit union card you haven’t used in decades, Palley recommends). The less accounts there are, the easier it will be on

the family.

The second is to list in an estate plan all of your online accounts to create a roadmap. The list doesn’t have to include dollar value of the accounts, and if you’re not comfortable putting all your password information in one place, consider leaving the credentials to your email account as a catch-all, as passwords on most accounts can be reset via email.

The new federal tax code raised the estate and gift tax exemption from $5.5 million to $11 million.

Very few individuals are going to exceed that level of wealth, but for those who do, proper estate planning can be pretty significant. With a 40 percent estate tax, you can figure every million dollars above $11 milion you’re losing $400,000 in taxes, Palley explained.

Additionally, some states still have their own estate tax that caps the exemption at much lower number. For example, in Oregon, the exemption is $1 million.

As your client sets up accounts throughout his lifetime such as an IRA, 401k or life insurance policy, you are often prompted to name a beneficiary. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re squared away for the long haul.

Over time, it’s important to verify that each account has a beneficiary listed. Events such as companies merging, changing computer systems or going from paper to electronic records can result in data mixups in which a family knows there was a beneficiary listed, but when it comes time to sort it out after an individual’s death, there’s no record of the beneficiary to be found.

There are online services that can help clients complete a “fill in the blank” estate plan, but they won’t be able to leverage the most benefit from a plan if they don’t work with a professional planner.

“The reality is an experienced attorney is able to combine the legal information with—how would I say—the expression on your face,” Palley said, speaking of his career before he switched exclusively to probate. “When we’re talking about who should be the trustee, I would say, ‘Do you trust your kid to be the trustee?’”

“Well, I could see a hesitation in their face or their voice, and if i saw that hesitation, then i might say, ‘Are you sure you trust them? Because I felt like you were a little slow to answer that. Maybe we should think about someone else being the trustee.’”

Your client doesn’t need to be Barbara Bush to put a similarly comprehensive plan in place.

“You don’t have to have multimillion dollar estate to have an incredible estate plan that reflects who you are,” said Boren-Coleman Sexton. “Do not think that you do not deserve a thorough estate plan. Go into this with every intention of having something that represents your legacy and something that you will be proud of.”