Preparing Now For Estate Planning
Estate planning is a way to ensure that your estate is transferred to intended beneficiaries upon your passing. Within an estate plan, you can choose someone to handle your estate upon your death. This nominated individual is called an executor and will carry out instructions in the estate plan as you have written.
If you have minor children, it can benefit to name a guardian for them as well in your estate plan. By writing your wishes out in a legally-binding way now, it can help reduce or completely avoid estate taxes and other issues like probate. The documents in an estate plan include:
- Trust
- Will
- Durable power of attorney
- Advanced health care directive
- Property deeds
- Beneficiary designations
- And more+
If you are just getting started writing your estate plan, then you probably have questions about probate too. Probate is a court-supervised process of locating and listing a decedent’s assets, and then distributing them to beneficiaries or heirs. However, probate can be a prolonged, costly, and stressful process for grieving loved ones. Because there are so many variables to consider when writing an estate plan, it isn’t uncommon for people to consult with a lawyer familiar with estate planning law. Documents to bring to your appointment with a lawyer include:
- A copy of the will or trust
- Financial documents
- Investment and stock information
- Intellectual property
- Life insurance policy information
- List of assets (tangible and intangible)
As an estate planning lawyer from Klenk Law can attest, it can help to have specific goals and intentions in mind for your estate plan before going into a consultation. No matter whether your estate is large or small, it’s recommended that you get started planning now. Depending on your situation, establishing a valid estate plan will be simple or more complex.
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