There are many facets to estate planning. The most obvious portion is the legal paperwork. Creating the appropriate will, trust, and other tools to ensure that your wishes are carried out are essential components. This consideration must account for effectively identifying your assets and determining the best way to pass them along intact. For small business owners, succession planning is also an important piece. It is important to consider how to best ensure that the business will be healthy in the future.

There is another aspect to estate planning as well, that is the personal and emotional side. Avoiding conflict or even probate litigation may require some preemptive planning and conversations with loved ones that might be impacted by your estate planning decisions.

One of the largest obstacles to these conversations is simply many people's discomfort and reluctance to talk about these matters of mortality. The reluctance can originate in a number of places. Sometimes an adult child will desire to talk with a parent about how they want to pass on their assets but the parent may be uncomfortable doing so. In many cases however the parent is comfortable with the idea that a day will come when they will no longer be present but the adult child is not emotionally prepared to even consider that eventuality.

In many families, there is an elephant in the room which makes beginning the conversation more difficult. This can be a situation such as a blended family where the dynamics are complicated and difficult decision will need to be made. In other cases sibling rivalry or other difficult relationship stands in the way of an open conversation where people may need to be more vulnerable than they would like.

No matter what the specific situation is for any given individual or family, it is almost always beneficial to being having these conversations early-on before a serious illness or other circumstance forces them to take place.

Source: The Patch, "Estate Planning and Elder Care: Getting the Conversation Started," Linda Covella, Sept. 6, 2011