4 Assets That Deserve Extra Attention in Your Estate Plan

A well-built estate plan is never only about the documents or tax planning. Most of the mistakes we see, the ones that cost families real money, time, and heartache, have nothing to do with the structure of the plan or the taxes. These issues happen because certain assets were overlooked, titled incorrectly, or left to pass by default rather than by design.

With that in mind, there are four categories of assets that deserve a closer look in your plan, regardless of the size of your estate.

1. Retirement Accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, and Other Qualified Accounts)

For many families, retirement accounts are the single largest asset outside the home, and they pass outside your will by beneficiary designation. That designation you filled out in 2009 may no longer reflect your life today. A divorced spouse, a deceased parent, or an ex-employer’s plan you forgot about are all common and costly surprises.

The rules regarding inherited retirement accounts have also changed dramatically in recent years. Most nonspouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA must empty it within 10 years, which can create a significant income tax burden for children in their peak earning years. Careful beneficiary selection (which oftentimes may include a charity), and in some cases Roth conversions during your lifetime, can make a dramatic difference in what your family actually keeps.

2. Closely Held Business Interests

If you own a business or professional practice, it’s likely both your largest asset and your most complicated one. Who steps in if you become incapacitated? Who buys out your share at death, at what price, and with what money? Without a funded buy-sell agreement and a documented succession plan, your co-owners and your family can end up in an involuntary partnership neither of them wanted. Failure to plan on the business side could also result in the fire sale of the business or its assets, thereby reducing the benefit for your family.

Business owners who plan to fund a buy-sell agreement via company-owned life insurance also need to review that arrangement. As company-owned life insurance is deemed to increase the value of a business for estate tax purposes, certain planning strategies should be considered as soon as possible.

On the tax side, business interests remain one of the areas where meaningful valuation discounts and transfer strategies are still available. The new, larger exemption gives owners who previously used most of their lifetime gifting capacity additional room to move assets out of the taxable estate while values are still in your control.

3. Real Estate, Especially the Vacation Property

Children often have different financial circumstances, geographic attachments, and ideas about whether to keep, share, or sell the family vacation home or farm. Joint ownership between siblings rarely works as smoothly as parents hope. One child pays the taxes and insurance, another uses it every weekend, and resentment builds. A purpose-built structure, such as an LLC or trust with clear usage rights, cost-sharing rules, and an exit mechanism, can preserve both the property and relationships.

Real estate can also throw another wrench in an estate plan, specifically when the real estate is owned in a different state than the decedent’s primary residence. As a general rule, and without proper planning, you must probate an estate in all states where real estate is owned.
For example, a decedent’s estate that owns property in Tennessee and Florida is required to be probated in both states. An issue that can be easily avoided with proper planning.

4. Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency

This is the fastest-growing blind spot we see. If you died tomorrow, could your executor locate your cryptocurrency wallets, exchange accounts, online banking, email, social media, cloud storage, and the passwords protecting all of them? For crypto not held on an exchange, losing the private key means losing the asset permanently. There is no custodian to call.

Most states have adopted a version of the Revised Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which can give your executor legal authority over digital property. But that authority only applies if your documents grant it, and only if your fiduciary can find the assets (and know how to handle them) in the first place.

The most effective estate plans are designed around the assets you actually own — not simply the documents you have in place. Retirement accounts, business interests, real estate, and digital assets each have their own rules and potential pitfalls, and failing to account for those differences can undermine an otherwise well-designed plan. A periodic review of how these assets are owned, titled, and intended to pass can help ensure your plan works as intended and provides the greatest benefit to the people and causes that matter most to you.

If you have acquired significant assets, experienced a major life change, or simply haven’t reviewed your estate plan recently, now may be a good time to take another look.