If you have assets that are worth protecting and passing down when you die then you need both a financial planner and an estate planning attorney. Not only that, but your financial planner should have a firm grasp of what your estate plan looks like and vice versa.

Your financial planner advises you on how to grow the assets you have while your estate planning attorney advises you on how to protect them. For example, let’s say that you are 30 years old and have assets worth $100,000 with a bright future ahead of you. You should sit down with your financial advisor to determine how best to invest and save those assets so that they will grow to $5 million by the time you are 60 years old. Your estate planning attorney, on the other hand, will look at the assets you have and how much you expect to have in the future and help make sure they are legally protected. Your estate planning attorney, for example, might advise you to create a revocable trust in the event you become incapacitated. He or she will also give you advice on how to create an estate plan that will minimize the tax consequences of passing down those assets when you die.

In order for both your financial plan and your estate plan to work well you should keep both advisors in the loop about what is happening with the other plan.