Estate planning is your best shot at ensuring that your estate is well protected and distributed according to your wish upon your death. In addition, with a power of attorney, you can designate an individual who will make those crucial health care, legal, and financial decisions on your behalf should you become incapacitated. Failure to plan your estate while alive will affect your loved ones in several ways.
Your estate will have to undergo the stressful, time-consuming and expensive probate process. In addition, your assets will be shared based on the intestate law of the state you reside in. What this means is that, your assets won’t be shared or distributed according to your wish.
What is estate planning?
Estate planning is the preparation of will, setting up trusts, bequeathing gifts to individuals or entities and/or granting authority to do certain acts by way of power of attorney. A huge majority of individuals believe that they don’t need estate planning and that it is a plan designed for the wealthy. The truth is that estate planning is for everyone, not just the wealthy and it is a plan an individual makes for the management and administration of their assets during and after their death.
While an estate plan remains a priority for everyone, some individual often fail to make this plan because they feel it is too early. Is it actually too early to make an estate plan? As we progress, we will figure that out.
When is the best time to plan your estate?
The best time to create an estate plan is NOW. Don’t wait till you start growing grey hair. Neither should you wait till you have owned many assets. Contact an estate planning attorney and kick start the estate planning process. This may be your only shot at this. Remember, no one knows the future. If you end up dying without an estate, your loved ones will struggle to claim your assets. In fact, it could take them months or years to settle your affairs due to how complicated the probate process can be.
After creating an estate plan, you can always update it with the help of a competent estate planning attorney.
Is it too early to plan?
It is never too early to plan your estate. The earlier you plan your estate, the better for you and your loved ones. Failure to plan your estate in time could come back to haunt you and your loved ones. For instance, if you got involved in an accident and become incapacitated, without a power of attorney, an important component of estate planning, you won’t be able to designate the individual who will make those important health care, legal, and financial decisions on your behalf.
Instead, what will happen is that, the court will step in and appoint an individual who will make those crucial health care, legal, and financial decisions on your behalf. I bet this is not what you would like. Thus, ensure you create an estate plan in time to avoid these circumstances.
The best way to create a quality estate plan is by hiring a competent estate planning attorney.
Need an estate planning attorney?
Creating a good estate plan can be complicated. There are many estate planning documents you need to create. You will also need to ensure that the documents adheres to your state law or regulation. In addition, you may need someone to update this plan from time-to-time. To do all these, you need the help of an estate planning attorney.
If you need to draft an estate plan that caters to your need and the needs of your loved ones. Or if you need to create any estate planning document, our estate planning attorney can be of help. All you have to do is contact our office, our estate planning attorneys will be glad to hear from you.