With the current super-generous federal estate tax exemption of $11.4 million, estate planning may be completely off your radar.

After all, with that huge exemption, you may think there’s no way your estate would owe any federal estate tax if you happen to die—expectedly or unexpectedly. Is your thinking right?

You should probably take one very important estate planning action as soon as you finish reading this.

Check the beneficiary designations for your

bank accounts,

brokerage firm accounts,

tax-favored retirement accounts,

company benefit plans,

life insurance policies,

annuities, and

529 college savings accounts.

If you’ve not yet turned in the forms to designate beneficiaries, please do it now. If the forms are out of date, change them to reflect current reality before it’s too late.

If you need motivation, here are two real-life horror stories to light a fire under you. ... Log in to view full article.