Beware if your estate plan leaves specific assets to specific heirs - Crawford Ellenbogen

Planning your estate around specific assets is risky and, in most cases, should be avoided. If you leave specific assets, such as homes, cars or stock, to specific people, you may inadvertently disinherit them or leave them less than you intended. This can happen because you sell the assets and neglect to revise your will or because the assets decline sharply in value. To avoid this situation, it’s generally preferable to divide your estate based on dollar values or percentages rather than specific assets. For example, you can place a mutual fund, home and insurance policy in a trust and divide the value of the trust equally between your children.