Estate planning experts try to make sure that their clients stay organized. They want all of your important papers to be easy for you to locate in the future. Family members have sometimes faced financial and emotional crises related to estate planning because they didn’t know where certain forms were or whether their relatives had completed them.
An estate attorney may recommend that you keep a folder full of essential documents related to estate planning work. There should be copies of the completed trust agreement, the latest will, and your testament. You’ll also need to include a healthcare directive. Attorneys will help make sure that you’re prepared with all these documents.
You have to be certain that you know what’s happening with your important financial assets after death. An after-death planner is valuable for people thinking about this situation. When individuals have access to an after-death planning guide, they’ll be less likely to leave behind unresolved issues of any kind for their friends or relatives.
Elder law attorneys can help with numerous important considerations. People will sometimes discuss elder and estate law concerns decades before anything happens, giving everyone the chance to feel more secure and stable for years.
No one enjoys making plans for their assets after they’re passing. However, it is a necessary evil to ensure that your property is handled as you desire and your loved one’s receive what they deserve. Between designating properties and assets to individuals, or designating a power of attorney, there are numerous tasks that need to be undertaken while an individual is still coherent.
Many people end up ignoring these duties until it is too late, whether it be from choosing to ignore the inevitable, or simply just forgetting, people’s assets can end up in the hands of a court, leading to extra costs and probates. Currently only around 64% of people in the United States have a drafted will. While many of these could be people at a young age who have yet to accumulate sizable enough assets to worry about, approximately 51% of adults aged 55 to 64 are ill-prepared for what’s to come.
Having an estate planning attorney to guide you through the process of drafting a will can make the process much quicker and easier to understand for the agent. For those whose assets amount to six figures or higher may also want to incorporate a trust into their plans.
A trust allows an individual to give a designated trustee property for safekeeping. When the time comes to hand down the property to a beneficiary, the trustee can do so even if the agent is incapacitated or unable to make sound decisions. Without a trust, the splitting up of assets will be handled by a court. The family members of the deceased will have to go to court as unplanned legal services designate how the assets will be handled. All of this will end up costing extra money on court and lawyer fees that come directly out of the leftover estate.
This is somewhat similar to granting power of attorney to a trusted individual but on a smaller scale. An individual can choose to instill power of attorney to an estate planning attorney or any individual they deem competent enough to handle their assets. This service allows the person with power of attorney to handle all of their assets if they become incapacitated.
Finding an estate planning attorney to draft a living will or trust is not nearly as difficult and scary as most people assume. It’s important to take care of these responsibilities before you are unable to.
