Estate planning . . . What It Is and Why You Need It
Like career planning, financial planning, and family planning, estate planning is a sub-category of life planning. The heart of estate planning is people, the ones you care about most: yourself and your spouse, partner, children, grandchildren, friends and pets. It can also include land, heirlooms, family traditions, charitable causes and other things that are important to you.
Often, when we think of estate planning, we tend to think first in terms of assets: who gets what when I die. But the first step in estate planning is to determine who will act on your behalf if you become disabled and unable to make health and financial decisions for yourself. The next step is to determine what happens when you die. But the determination isn’t so much about assets as it is about your relationships with others whom you care about most deeply.
When you die, you may no longer be physically present, but your assets, your debts and tax liabilities, and the memory others carry with them about you – your legacy – live on. The relationships continue, and the ones you love must live with the “plan” you have created, either through intention or neglect.
The good news is that estate planning is an area of the law that especially lends itself to a creative collaboration between clients and their attorney. Ideally, the planning process provides an opportunity to take your relationships to a higher, more satisfying level, and to yield other important positive results in your life right now while you can enjoy them such as a sense of order and peace.
Your Estate . . . Yes, You Have One
“Estate” simply means assets. Everyone has them: the clothes on your back, your car, your checking account, your home, your pets (even though you may consider them your children, the law treats them as property), your retirement account, your insurance policy, to name a few. But estate planning also takes into consideration the impact of debt, liquidity, potential disability and a multitude of other factors you handle automatically while you’re alive and able.
Conceptually, it’s as simple as (1) who takes charge of my affairs if I become disabled, and (2) when I die, who gets what’s left of my assets, be they abundant, meager or in between, after my debts and taxes are paid, and who’s in charge of seeing that it all gets done. But the devil is in the details, and brother, are there a lot of details!
Do Yourself a Favor, Defeat Procrastination NOW!
I invite you to begin this planning process now. Believe me, the hardest part is overcoming inertia. But once you complete the process, your feelings of pride and satisfaction at having gotten organized and having done the right thing will be enormous. And so will your sense of peace.
Check out the tabs for more information: Your Special Relationships (we all have them); Horror Stories (real stories of what can happen and has happened if planning is neglected or done inadequately); Myths and Realities (misconceptions abound; don’t be misinformed); and FAQs (how to overcome inertia and get started). You may be surprised at what you discover.