Five Estate Planning Mistakes That Cost NJ Families ThousandsMay 31, 2026

Estate planning failures rarely announce themselves. They surface months after someone has passed, when the family is already grieving and the options for correction are limited or nonexistent.

At The Curchin Group, we have spent over 70 years helping Monmouth County families navigate the financial side of estates. The most expensive problems we encounter are almost never random. They fall into the same five categories, and every one of them is preventable with the right professional guidance.

Mistake #1: Treating the Will as the Entire Estate Plan

A will tells a court who gets what. That is the beginning and end of what it does. It does not avoid probate. It does not reduce taxes. It does not protect assets from creditors. It does not address what happens if you become incapacitated before you die.

For business owners, a will alone leaves enormous gaps. It does not cover:

• Who runs your business during probate (which can take months)
• How business interests transfer if your operating agreement conflicts with the will
• Whether retirement accounts and life insurance pass to the people you intended (those are controlled by beneficiary designations, not your will)
• How to minimize NJ inheritance tax for beneficiaries who are not spouses or direct descendants

A comprehensive estate plan coordinates all of these elements. A will is one piece of it.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Beneficiary Designations

This is quietly one of the most costly mistakes we see. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain bank accounts pass directly to named beneficiaries, regardless of what your will says.

When beneficiary designations are outdated – still listing an ex-spouse, a deceased parent, or no one at all – the results range from awkward to devastating. Assets end up with the wrong person, trigger unnecessary taxes, or get stuck in probate despite the owner’s clear wishes.

The fix is straightforward: review all beneficiary designations as part of your estate plan and update them whenever your family or financial situation changes. Your CPA should coordinate this review alongside your tax planning to ensure the designations are tax-efficient, not just legally valid.

Mistake #3: No Coordination Between Business and Personal Plans

Business owners have two interlocking financial lives: the business and the personal estate. When the estate plan is developed without considering the business – or when the business succession plan ignores estate tax implications – conflicts are almost guaranteed.

Common conflicts we encounter:

• The operating agreement says one thing, the will says another. If your will leaves business interests to your children but your operating agreement gives your partner a right of first refusal, the result is a legal dispute during probate.
• The buy-sell agreement is unfunded. An agreement that requires a surviving partner to purchase the deceased’s share is meaningless if there is no insurance policy or reserve to fund it.
• The business valuation is outdated. Gift and estate tax calculations rely on a defensible valuation. A valuation from five years ago may not reflect current reality, and the IRS knows it.
• Succession and estate timelines do not align. A succession plan that transfers leadership over ten years does not work if the owner dies in year two without an interim plan.

Your CPA needs to sit at the same table as your attorney and financial advisor. These are not three separate conversations.

Mistake #4: Underestimating NJ Inheritance Tax Exposure

New Jersey eliminated its estate tax in 2018, and many residents mistakenly believe they have no state-level tax exposure. The inheritance tax, however, remains in full effect.

The critical detail: NJ inheritance tax is based on who receives the assets, not the total estate value. Transfers to spouses and direct descendants are exempt. But transfers to siblings, nieces, nephews, business partners, and unrelated individuals are taxed at rates up to 16%.

Business owners who plan to leave assets to a partner, a key employee, or an extended family member often do not realize the tax hit until it is too late to restructure. A $1 million transfer to a Class D beneficiary generates a tax bill in the range of $150,000 to $160,000.

The solution is not to avoid leaving assets to these individuals. It is to structure the transfer in a way that minimizes or offsets the tax – through trusts, insurance, gifting strategies, or entity restructuring. That is exactly the kind of analysis your CPA should be doing as part of your estate plan.

Mistake #5: Waiting Too Long to Plan

This is the mistake that enables all the others. Estate planning is most effective when you have time. Many of the best strategies – annual gifting, trust funding, valuation discounts, insurance purchases – require years to implement fully.

When planning is deferred until retirement, a health event, or a business sale, the options narrow considerably:

• Insurance may be unavailable or prohibitively expensive
• Gifting strategies require time to transfer meaningful value within annual limits
• Trust structures take time to fund and establish a track record
• Business valuations performed under time pressure may not withstand IRS scrutiny
• The federal estate tax exemption could be lower by the time you act

The most common reason business owners delay is that they believe their estate is not large enough to worry about. But the federal exemption is scheduled to decrease, NJ inheritance tax has no minimum threshold for Class D beneficiaries, and business values can fluctuate significantly.

The time to plan is when you have options. Once those options close, they rarely reopen.

What These Mistakes Have in Common

Every one of these mistakes shares a root cause: the estate plan was either incomplete, outdated, or developed without input from a CPA who understands both business and personal tax implications.

Attorneys draft the legal documents. Financial advisors manage investments. But the CPA is the one who ensures the entire structure is tax-efficient, that the numbers work, and that no part of the plan creates an unintended tax consequence.

At Curchin, we take a coordinated approach that brings your business strategy, personal estate, and tax planning into one conversation. We work alongside your attorney and financial advisor to build a plan that holds together under scrutiny – from the IRS, from the state, and from the real-world complexity of family business dynamics.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common estate planning mistake for business owners?

Failing to coordinate the business succession plan with the personal estate plan. When the operating agreement, buy-sell provisions, beneficiary designations, and will are developed separately, conflicts are almost inevitable.

Can estate planning mistakes be fixed after someone dies?

Some can be partially addressed through post-mortem planning techniques, such as disclaimers or elections. But the options are far more limited and expensive than planning ahead. Most costly mistakes, like unfunded buy-sell agreements or outdated valuations, cannot be corrected after death.

When should I review my estate plan?

Every two to three years at minimum, and immediately after any major life event: marriage, divorce, birth of a child or grandchild, business sale or acquisition, retirement, or a significant change in tax law.

Protect What You Have Built

These five mistakes are preventable. If you are not sure whether your estate plan covers all the bases, or if you have not reviewed it in the past three years, now is the time.

Contact The Curchin Group to schedule a review, or call (732) 747-0500.