You Made a Will. Here’s What It Can’t Do.

You did it. 

Maybe Make-A-Will Month finally moved it to the top of your list. Maybe you've been meaning to get this done for years and this was the month it finally happened. Either way, you sat down, signed the documents, and walked out with something most families never get around to.

That matters. I mean it.

But here's what I tell every client who comes to me after making a will somewhere else: most families think the job is done. They sign the documents, file them away, and assume they're covered. Then something happens, and they find out how much the will didn't do.

If you made a will, this is your checklist for what comes next.

First, Understand What You Actually Signed

A will is a legal document that tells a court what you want to happen to your assets after you die. That's the scope of it. It does not keep your family out of court. In most states, assets that pass through a will must go through probate, which is a public process that can take months, cost thousands in fees, and freeze your assets while it's happening.

A will also only controls what's in it, not what you said. If you told someone you were leaving them your car and it isn't reflected in the document, that person may contest the will in court. Will contests are more common than most people realize, and even unsuccessful ones add cost, delay, and family conflict to an already difficult time.

A will also does not control assets that have their own beneficiary designations: your retirement accounts, your life insurance, your bank accounts with transfer-on-death designations. Those pass outside your will entirely, by whatever name is on the form you filled out, sometimes years ago.

And a will does nothing if you're incapacitated rather than dead. If you're in an accident and can't make decisions for yourself, your will doesn't activate. Your family may have no legal authority to manage your finances or make medical decisions without going to court first.

The bottom line: A will is not a complete plan. Here's what building the rest of it actually looks like.

Step 1: Your Beneficiary Designations May Already Be Overriding Your Will

Most people don't realize this when they sign their will: there is an entirely separate set of documents already controlling who gets a significant portion of their assets. Those documents are your beneficiary designation forms, and they operate completely outside of your will.

Here is the part that matters. When there is a conflict between what your will says and what a beneficiary designation says, the form wins. Every time. A judge does not have the authority to override it. Your will does not have the authority to override it. Whatever name is on that form is who gets the money.

What I see most often: a former spouse still named on a retirement account. A parent who has since passed away. A child named directly as a beneficiary, which means that money is now subject to court-supervised guardianship until they turn 18, regardless of what your will says about how you wanted it managed.

Every retirement account, life insurance policy, and bank account with a transfer-on-death designation needs to be reviewed. Each one needs a named primary beneficiary and a contingent that reflects your family as it actually is today, not as it was the first week of your first job.

The bottom line: Your will does not control your beneficiary designations. Your beneficiary designations control themselves. Reviewing every form is one of the first things I walk through with every family in a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, because it is one of the most common places where an otherwise solid plan falls apart.

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Step 2: Find Out Whether Your Trust Is Actually Funded

If you received a trust along with your will, I need you to ask one specific question: are my assets actually in the trust?

A trust only controls what is inside it. Signing a trust document creates a legal container. Transferring your assets into that container, which is called funding the trust, is a separate step that many families never complete. If your house, your bank accounts, and your investment accounts are still titled in your own name rather than the name of your trust, they will go through probate regardless of what the trust says.

In my experience, unfunded trusts are one of the most common estate planning failures I encounter. Families pay for a trust, assume their estate is protected, and then their loved ones end up in probate court anyway because no one ever transferred the assets. The trust document is sitting in a folder. The assets never made it in.

If you don't know whether your trust is funded, ask. If it isn't, funding it is the next priority.

The bottom line: A trust you signed but never funded offers no more protection than no trust at all. Funding is not automatic. It has to be done deliberately, often with help.

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Step 3: A Will Says Nothing About What Happens If You’re Incapacitated

A will activates when you die. The rest of your life, including any period when you are alive but unable to make decisions, requires separate legal documents.

At a minimum, a complete plan includes a durable power of attorney, which gives someone you trust legal authority to manage your finances if you're incapacitated; a healthcare directive, also called a living will or advance directive, which tells medical providers what you want if you can't speak for yourself; and a healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney, which names someone to make medical decisions on your behalf.

I also make sure clients have a HIPAA authorization in place, which allows the people you designate to receive information from your medical providers. Without it, your spouse may not be able to get basic updates about your condition from a hospital.

If you made a will and nothing else, you have a plan for what happens when you die. You do not have a plan for what happens if you're incapacitated. For most families, incapacity is actually the more likely scenario, and the more disruptive one for the people left managing everything.

The bottom line: A will is one document in a complete plan. The incapacity documents are equally important and often missing entirely.

Step 4: Know Who Reviews This With You Going Forward

Your life will change. The plan needs to change with it.

When I work with clients in a Life & Legacy Planning® relationship, we review the plan at least every 3 years. I re-verify beneficiary designations, check that the trust is still funded with any new accounts or property, confirm that the guardian you named for your children still makes sense for where your family is today, make sure the agents named in your incapacity documents are still the right people, and confirm the plan as a whole still reflects your current situation.

This matters because the gaps that hurt families most aren't usually the result of bad planning at the start. They're the result of good planning that was never updated. A divorce, a new baby, a move to a different state, a significant change in assets, a death of a named beneficiary: any of these can quietly create a gap in a plan that looked complete when it was signed.

A Personal Family Lawyer® firm stays connected to your family over time. The relationship is the plan.

The bottom line: A plan you review is a plan that works when your family needs it. A plan you sign and file away is a plan waiting to fail.

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Why the Platform You Used Isn't Enough

If you made your will through an online platform, or through an attorney who handed you documents and moved on, I am genuinely glad you did it. Something is better than nothing.

But the platform didn't check your beneficiary designations. It didn't ask whether your trust is funded. It didn't prepare your healthcare directive or your power of attorney. It didn't think about what happens if you're incapacitated rather than dead, or whether the guardian you named is the right person now that your life has changed. And it won't be there to review your plan when your life has continued to evolve.

It also didn't explain who to name in those documents or what you're actually asking them to do. An AI can give you a definition of a successor trustee. A lawyer can explain what happens when little Johnny turns 21 and asks the trustee for $500,000 to buy a Lamborghini. That's the job. And who you name for it matters enormously. I've seen clients name aging parents as successor trustee for a toddler, parents who won't be around to manage anything for the next three decades. Healthcare agents carry the same weight. I've seen that role go to the wrong person, and the outcomes are ones families don't recover from easily. A platform generates the document. A lawyer helps you understand who belongs in it and what you're putting them in charge of.

When I sit down with a client for a Life & Legacy Planning Session, I am looking at the full picture: what you own, who you want to protect, what scenarios your family could face, and what documents and structures actually address those scenarios. The goal isn't a folder of signed papers. It's a plan that functions the way you intended when your family needs it most.

The bottom line: Online tools can create a document. They can't do the thinking that makes a plan actually work for your specific family.

Life & Legacy Planning® Sessions: What to Do Before August Ends

If you made a will this month, you did something real. Now take the next step.

As your Personal Family Lawyer, I offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session where I review everything you have in place and everything that's still missing. Most families leave that session more financially organized than they've ever been, with a clear picture of what's in place and what needs to happen next.

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute discovery call and let's find out where you actually stand: https://outlook.office.com/book/bookings@succession-plus.com/s/WGz7l2mrQ0ibZJ7joYe5cQ2?ismsaljsauthenabled

This article is a service of Bret Christiansen, a Personal Family Lawyer® Firm. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That's why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning® Session, during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

The content is sourced from Personal Family Lawyer for use by Personal Family Lawyer firms, a source believed to be providing accurate information. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA, tax, legal, or investment advice. If you are seeking legal advice specific to your needs, such advice services must be obtained on your own, separate from this educational material.

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