The beneficiary form that quietly overrides your will.
Most estate plans fail not in the documents themselves, but in the account-level designations no one has checked in a decade.
Wills and trusts get the attention. Beneficiary designations decide the outcome. On retirement accounts, life insurance, and many other assets, the named beneficiary supersedes whatever the will says — and the will never gets the chance to object.
We have seen ex-spouses inherit IRAs. We have seen estranged siblings receive proceeds that were meant for children. We have seen accounts pass to long-deceased parents because no one had updated the form since 1997.
The fix is unglamorous: pull every account, request the current beneficiary on file, and compare it against what your estate documents say should happen. Then do it again every few years, and after every major life event.
It is the lowest-cost, highest-impact estate planning work most families never do.