Your Time is Valuable. Let us help you get a jump start on Estate Planning.

In the hustle and bustle of life, many of us struggle with prioritizing what tasks to complete and when. I often find myself avoiding those personal tasks that I know are important (but are not currently pressing) in favor of knocking out other items on my weekly to-do list. I think we can both agree that the important tasks we keep putting off are often those we know we should be tackling sooner rather than later…As such, if you have been putting off speaking with your family or loved ones about preparing or updating an estate plan, now is the time. Carpe Diem!

To that end, I want to help you get a jump start on estate planning with some questions that I believe are critical to your estate planning success.

1. Who do you want to handle your financial affairs?

In the estate planning process, it is important to think about who you want to put in charge of handling your finances. This person should be someone that you trust and that is detail-oriented and knowledgeable about finances as well as smart about managing their own money. The person you choose could be designated to handle your financial matters while you are living or after you pass and you may decide to appoint them as your agent under a financial power of attorney or as trustee of your revocable living trust.

By customizing the financial power of attorney documents to meet your needs, you can grant your agent as much or as little power as you’d like. With a limited power of attorney, you can grant your agent only the power to open and close bank accounts, for example, whereas with a general durable power of attorney, you can give your agent the power to anything that you could do yourself. You also have the ability to define when your agent is allowed to act on your behalf. For example, you may only want to give your agent authority to act on your behalf if you become incapacitated or you may want to grant your agent power immediately allowing the agent to be able to act on your behalf the moment you sign the document. Keep in mind that just because you give the agent the full ability to conduct your financial affairs, this does not take away your power to make any decisions, it merely allows both you and the agent to have the ability to fully act on any of your financial affairs.

The other role this trusted individual could play is the successor trustee of your revocable living trust. Within the trust, you are originally designated as the trustee and beneficiary so that the money and property that is technically owned by the trust is still managed and controlled by you. In this capacity, the trusted individual that you appoint as trustee will manage your property and money for you in the event that you are no longer able to manage those affairs yourself. The trustee that you choose will be required by the court to follow the instructions that you leave for them within the trust and therefore will continue to be used in the way that you intend for them to be used after your death.

2. Who will handle your medical affairs?

It is important to consider who will handle your medical affairs should you become unable to communicate your wishes. Through a healthcare power of attorney, you can appoint an agent to make life or death decisions on your behalf. The person you will want to choose for this role should be trustworthy, able to make wise decisions, will have your best interest at heart, and will communicate your wishes when the time arises as opposed to their own. It is important to put a considerable amount of thought into who you choose for this role, especially if family members that you might be considering have differing opinions than you on how you might like to handle your medical affairs. Its also worth noting that medical emergencies can happen instantaneously, and you want to make sure that the person you choose will be available to make decisions for you should the situation present itself.

Lastly, appointing someone for this role is extremely important, but if you appoint your agent of choice, and do not leave them with any written instructions about your wishes in certain given medical situations, they will be forced to use their best judgment in the moment of how you would want them to handle the situation instead of simply following the written guide that you’ve left for them through a living will or advance directive. Consider scheduling an appointment to speak with one of the trusted estate planning attorneys at Pierce Law Group today to discuss putting your plans in writing.

3. Who will look after your minor children?

If you have a child that is a minor, it is critical to think about who will care for them should something happen to you. From the moment you have children, it is strongly recommended that you appoint a caretaker that can step in and take care of your child should you become unable to. Remember the considerations mentioned earlier such as geographic location, time availability, and general emotional and physical capability of the person you choose and apply them again here to make sure that the person you choose will be fully equipped and able to take care of your child should the situation arise. It is worth noting that you won’t know exactly how long your minor children will be required to be with this appointed caretaker so make sure that whoever you choose could be a good fit for the short or long term.

4. Who will look after your pets?

For many people, pets are just as much a part of the family as anyone else and therefore require similar planning. If you were to become ill, incapacitated, or even pass away, who would you want to take care of your pets? It’s important to think about someone that gets along with animals, doesn’t have pets of their own that may have a conflict with your pets, and that would be fit to care for your pets not just physically but financially as well.

5. How do you want your money and property divided after your death?

Thinking about how you want to divide your assets can be difficult and it is usually extremely helpful and time-efficient to hire an estate planning lawyer to help you navigate the territories that you likely are not spending time thinking about on a daily basis. That being said, some of the considerations to think about when dividing assets include thinking about what is in the best interest of the individuals on the receiving end of your assets? Are they mature enough and/or capable of handling and managing the assets that you pass down to them? Keep in mind, you do not have to give money and property to loved ones outright. You do have options and we are here to help you navigate through those options to find out which one makes the most sense for you and your family.

If you are worried about giving all of your assets to one person all at one time, rest assured, you can choose to stagger those distributions over a period of time or even stagger them based on incentives that you have set for the beneficiaries. For example, you can set aside money or property to go to one of your heirs once they hit a milestone of your choosing such as graduating college or getting their first job. By setting these boundaries, you can further protect the loved ones you want to leave money or property behind to.

We Are Here to Help You

As you can tell from this short article, there is a lot to consider within the estate planning process and through a 1:1 meeting with you, we can gain more insight into your life, your circumstances, your family and the concerns and desires you have through estate planning to come up with the customized plan that makes sense for you. We want to work with you so that these complexities can be navigated through as seamlessly as possible. Call us for a complimentary initial consultation today so that we can save you time and energy and protect you and those you love by starting the estate planning process today.