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Most estate plans are built with one generation in mind.

The husband and wife sitting across the table. Their assets, their wishes, their concerns about what happens when they are gone.

That is the right place to start. But it is not the right place to finish.

Because at some point, the people who built the plan will no longer be here to carry it out.

And the people who are left behind, the children, the grandchildren, the trustees and executors named in documents signed years ago, will be asked to make decisions and take on responsibilities they may never have been properly prepared for.

That is the gap most estate plans never quite close.

We believe good planning has to involve the next generation, not just as beneficiaries, but as participants.

Not necessarily from the beginning. There are conversations that belong between a husband and wife before anyone else is brought into the room.

But at the right time, and in the right way, involving children in the planning process makes an enormous difference to how well that plan actually performs when it needs to.

A trustee who understands why the trust was set up, what it is designed to achieve, and what is expected of them is in a completely different position to one who discovers all of that for the first time in the weeks after a parent’s death.

An executor who knows where the will is kept, who the advisers are, and what the plan was designed to do can administer an estate far more efficiently than one who is starting from scratch during a period of grief.

The plan itself needs to be reviewed regularly too.

Circumstances change. Tax rules change. Family structures change. A plan built for the family as it was ten years ago may not serve the family as it is today.

Keeping the plan up to date, and keeping the right people informed as it evolves, is not a one-off conversation.

It is an ongoing one. And it is one of the most important things a family can do to make sure the wealth they have built actually reaches the people it was meant for.

To find out more about how Deep Dive Estate Planning can help, visit deep-dive-trusts.co.uk