There's no such thing as "too early" when it comes to planning or reviewing your estate plan. Case in point: several years ago, Kelley Brooks’ husband, Chris, who was being treated for hypertension, died in his sleep. Like so many other couples in their 40s, they had talked about estate planning but never got around to it. “You think you have forever to do all that, but you don’t,” says Brooks of Bellingham, Mass.
Experts hear similar stories all the time. “People often underestimate how much it will cost if they don’t plan,” says Renee Fry, founder and CEO of Gentreo, an online estate-planning company. For people nearly or newly retired, who potentially still have decades ahead for their assets to compound and grow, estate taxes are a huge concern.
