Six Types of Estate Planning

This article gives an overview of what the author refers to as the six types of estate planning:

1. Do nothing.

2. Give everything away.

3. Put your property in joint tenancies.

4. Name intended beneficiaries for your life insurance, annuities, IRAs and retirement accounts.

5. Write a will.

6. Write a revocable living trust.

The article is a nice introduction, but I do have two problems with it:

For one thing, the author gives the impression that these six types of estate planning are mutually exclusive.  They aren't.  In many (most) cases, my clients will have a will AND a revocable living trust AND name beneficiaries for their life insurance and retirement benefits AND hold some property jointly AND make lifetime gifts.

Also, one pretty big factual error:  the author says that  "if you become disabled, you’ll have no access to" assets for which you've designated beneficiaries.  That just isn't true.