Estate Planning; it's art not science

I really enjoyed this article about the art and science of estate planning from today's Wall Street Journal. In particular, I completely agree that when a client withholds information about assets, it can spell big trouble for an estate. Unfortunately, clients don't always realize that the one person they don't want to hide information from is the person hired to set up the future plan for their family and their assets.

Failing to disclose that "hidden" asset can mean that when you pass away, your estate is hit with a much bigger tax liability than you had planned for. Other assets may have to be used to pay the taxes. If you had simply divulged the asset in the first place, perhaps tax planning might have been effective.

You also run the risk that if your asset is more well-concealed than you thought, nobody is going to know about it on your death and your family will not receive it.

Communication is key between a lawyer and a client, and the responsibility for that lies with both of them.