A well-crafted estate plan can protect your loved ones, ensure your assets go where you intend, and address potentially significant tax consequences. But even the most carefully designed plans can fall short when faced with unexpected circumstances. That is where stress testing comes in. Much like a doctor ordering a cardiac stress test or a bank modeling against adverse economic conditions, stress testing your estate plan means asking a series of pointed "what if" questions to see how your plan would actually perform. The process can surface risky assumptions, improperly titled assets, missing beneficiaries, inflexible trust provisions, and liquidity shortfalls before it is too late to address them.

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