Starting a conversation with your loved ones (whether it be your parents, your partner, your siblings, your children, or others) about estate planning can feel overwhelming for many reasons. Here are five tips to help you begin.

I regularly hear, "it's too complicated," as one of the main reasons people haven't written a will. For people with blended families, complicated finances, numerous lengthy and specific property distribution bequests, and/or vast amounts of wealth - yes, it can be complicated.

Getting your estate plan documents written is (more than) half the battle. But, before you shove those freshly signed, witnessed, and notarized documents in a drawer somewhere and forget about them (and by the way, don't do that!) - please be sure you aren't making one of these seven deadly estate planning mistakes - they are all totally avoidable!