Have you ever noticed that the best stores are the ones that provide great service after the sale? Take for example the purchase of home entertainment systems. The better the system, the more that is involved in getting it set up properly. The best stores typically offer (either at a minimal additional cost or already included in the purchase price) assistance in setting up the system that you have purchased. They may even come to your home to help.

A well-crafted estate plan is much like a top-of-the- line home entertainment system that will simply sit idle unless it is properly implemented. Besides the years of experience and legal advice that may have gone into the preparation of an individual's estate planning documents, one of the most important aspects of the estate plan is the implementation of the plan (i.e., the funding and "tying up of the loose ends").

If you cannot answer yes to each of the following questions, then you probably need to have your estate plan reviewed:

1. I have fully funded my Revocable Trust (this is the #1 overlooked item in estate planning)?

2. I have addressed what will happen with real property located in other states?

3. I have made sure the beneficiary designations of my IRA, retirement plans, life insurance policies and/or annuities are properly completed and integrated with my estate plan?

4. I have left clear funeral instructions?

5. I have designated, through a separate writing, who is to receive my tangible personal property (i.e., even though the primary designee may be a spouse, wives typically do not use their husband's golf clubs and husband's will not wear their wife's diamond wedding ring)?

6. For spouses with taxable estates - I have properly titled my and my spouse's assets to take advantage of the estate tax benefits of our estate plan?

If the answer to any of the above is no, then by example, you may have purchased the best home entertainment system, but the picture is fuzzy, the sound is garbled and the clock is still flashing on the VCR!