How to screw up your estate planning with one signature

Donna Neff, an estate planning lawyer in Ontario, has written a blog post with one of the best titles I've seen for a long while.

The article very clearly illustrates how easy it is to make a mistake with estate planning. In Ms. Neff's example, a client created the very situation he wanted to avoid with one signature. Thank goodness he showed her the paperwork so that she could explain what would happen, giving him time to fix it.

What can we learn from this article? When you're getting a will made, take all of your paperwork with you to see the lawyer. By this I mean life insurance documents, pension paperwork, property titles, account statements, etc. There is absolutely no point making a will that says one thing if you have other paperwork that directly contradicts it. Your lawyer should help you to make sure that everything works together to achieve what you want.

Click here to read Ms. Neff's blog post.