Planning for a 100-year life is about more than managing money—it’s about building a legacy, protecting loved ones, and ensuring your values endure long after you’re gone. Financial security and estate planning aren’t separate conversations; they are two sides of the same coin. Yet many people treat them as unrelated, meeting with a financial advisor for investments and an attorney for wills or trusts, without ever ensuring those plans align.

The result? Missed opportunities, unnecessary taxes, and confusion for family members later on. The Age Brilliantly approach encourages a different mindset: view financial and estate planning as integrated—a continuous dialogue between your advisors and attorneys that evolves with your life.

Why Coordination Matters

Financial advisors focus on building and managing your wealth—investments, retirement savings, cash flow, and tax strategies. Estate planning attorneys focus on distributing that wealth according to your wishes, minimizing legal complications, and ensuring your directives are followed. When these professionals work in silos, critical details can fall through the cracks.

For example, a financial advisor might help you grow a significant investment portfolio, but if your estate plan isn’t updated, those assets might not transfer smoothly to your heirs. Similarly, an attorney may draft a trust but fail to ensure the financial accounts are titled properly to fund it. Coordination avoids these costly mismatches and ensures your plans work together, not at cross-purposes.

Life Changes That Demand Collaboration

Major life transitions are often the catalyst for revisiting both financial and estate plans simultaneously:

• Marriage or divorce: Updating beneficiaries, property titles, and future income planning.
• Birth of a child or grandchild: Adjusting savings plans, guardianship provisions, and inheritance strategies.
• Significant windfalls or inheritance: Coordinating tax strategies, trust structures, and investment allocations.
• Approaching retirement: Balancing income strategies with legacy goals and healthcare planning.
• Loss of a spouse or partner: Revising everything from income needs to end-of-life directives and asset distribution.

These aren’t one-time events. Because life is dynamic, both your financial and legal strategies must adapt over decades. Regular joint reviews—every few years or after major milestones—keep your plan relevant and aligned.

How to Foster Collaboration

You don’t have to manage the coordination yourself. Start by introducing your financial advisor and estate planning attorney to each other. Ask them to share relevant documents, communicate about updates, and confirm that your investments, trusts, and wills all work seamlessly together. If you don’t already have both professionals in place, consider choosing ones open to collaboration—or seek firms that house both services under one roof.

Technology also makes coordination easier. Shared portals, encrypted document storage, and regular video check-ins allow your professionals to stay connected even if they aren’t in the same city.

Periodic Check-Ins Are Key

Your needs will evolve as you age. What you set up at 40 may not be sufficient at 70. Periodic check-ins—every two to three years or after a major life change—keep your plans current. These meetings are opportunities to revisit your goals, review tax law changes, and adjust strategies so your financial and estate plans continue to serve your life’s vision.

Bringing It All Together

True fulfillment comes when your financial resources and legacy planning are aligned—not just for your benefit, but for the generations that follow. Coordinating your advisor and attorney ensures that the wealth you’ve built supports your values, minimizes conflict, and provides clarity for your loved ones. It’s not just about having “a plan”—it’s about having an integrated plan that evolves as you do.

Have you ever updated your financial plan without reviewing your estate plan—or vice versa? How did it work out? Could better coordination have saved stress or confusion for your family? Share your thoughts in the Age Brilliantly Forum and help others learn why bringing these two professionals together can be a game-changer.