Thinking about what will happen when you die can be an incredibly morbid thought, but what if we told you it was essential?
Poor estate planning can be an extreme headache for your loved one and end up leaving your assets tied up in the system from months to years while things are sorted out.
Keep reading to find out why you need to plan for your estate and things you should keep in mind.
What’s Estate Planning For?
Estate planning is the process in which all of your assets like your home, your finances, and any other items of value you own are passed to a selected individual or individuals for ownership. Estate planning isn’t something that is done by older individuals in preparation for their deaths, it’s something that should be done earlier in one’s life.
It’s a good idea to create a plan for your estate once you’ve had children or have acquired assets like a home and some savings, to make sure that if you were to pass away that your children are cared for immediately.
Do I Need a Lawyer for This?
The short answer? Yes, you need an estate planning lawyer.
The reason being that to have your plan move through the system in the quickest way possible, it must be notarized by a lawyer for legal validity to hold up in court. Although you can draft up an estate plan without a lawyer’s signature on it, it will likely be contested and may even be deemed invalid.
There are certain rules regarding notarization in each state, so it’s a good idea to be aware of what the legal requirements are in place for your estate plan.
Protecting Your Beneficiaries & Assets
An estate plan will protect your beneficiaries and your assets from being possessed by the state and from taking a long time to be distributed.
Your family dealing with your death will be trying and stressful enough, you wouldn’t want them to deal with more stress by having to fight over your home and money. An estate plan will prevent this from happening.
Making Your Wishes Clear
By creating an estate plan, be sure to make your wishes clear.
Avoid making complicated plans or wishes in your plan and clearly set out what is going to whom and how much. The reason for doing this is it keeps the estate distribution process as smooth and seamless as possible without leaving any room for interpretation by others. This will also avoid internal family fights over assets by contesting your will.
Protecting You & Your Family
Estate planning is the best protection you can offer your family and loved ones at the time of your death. It definitely isn’t something that’s left to old people to figure out and complete and should be done sooner rather than later. How will you take care of your family?
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