Special considerations for business owners.

If you own your business with another person — a partner, a sibling, an investor — the very first thing to confirm is that you have the correct business documents in place describing what happens when an owner passes away. An operating agreement, a buy-sell agreement, and any related corporate paperwork should clearly spell out the rights and obligations of the surviving owner, the deceased owner's family, and the business itself.

If those documents don't exist, or if they're outdated, they need to be drafted or updated before they're tied into the broader estate plan. Business documents and estate plan documents are typically handled separately — but they have to align, and skipping the business piece is one of the most common and costly oversights we see.

Once the business documents are in good shape, the second step is making sure your estate plan addresses what should happen with the business after you're gone. Do you want a specific person to take over and run it? Should it be wound down or sold? Is there an interim manager who should keep things going while a sale is arranged?

These wishes are written into the will or trust as part of your overall estate plan, while the operational mechanics live inside the business documents themselves. Having both sides handled — and consistent with each other — is what allows the people you leave behind to actually carry out your intentions without confusion or conflict.