Did you let another year pass by without taking action to prepare or update your Estate Plan? Or, are you asking yourself, what exactly is an Estate Plan and do I even need one? Not to worry, now is the time to kick off 2023 on the right foot by making these important decisions and protecting yourself and your loved ones both while you are living and after your death.

What is estate planning?

Everyone has an estate. It consists of all of your financial assets and accounts such as checking accounts, savings accounts, investment accounts, and real estate. It also includes items such as your car and personal property. No matter how much or how little a person might own, you have an estate. In addition to financial assets and personal property, it is also important to make decisions regarding who will take care of your children after you are gone, what kind of medical treatment you want to receive while living if you are unable to speak for yourself, and who you want to take care of you if you become incapacitated and can no longer make decisions for yourself.

Not only does everyone have an estate, but everyone also has an Estate Plan, whether you realize it or not. The question becomes whether your Estate Plan is something you prepare based on your specific wishes or will the state-imposed estate and life care decisions be made for you based on state law.

What should be included in your Estate Plan?

At a minimum, a comprehensive Estate Plan consists of a Revocable Living Trust, pour-over Will, Financial Power of Attorney, Living Will, Health Care Proxy (Health Care Power of Attorney), and a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization. The benefits of a comprehensive plan that includes a trust is to allow your assets to pass to your beneficiaries without having to go through a formal probate proceeding. This is often the path chosen by individuals and families when doing such planning who specifically want to avoid having to “probate the estate” because this judicial proceeding is more costly, time consuming to your grieving loved ones, and equally important, all probate records are publicly available to anyone who might choose to request them from the court.

If you are not worried about your estate having to go through the probate process and incur the additional cost to your estate, then you can probably choose to not implement the Revocable Living Trust and simply use a Will to designate what property goes to what beneficiaries. This is sometimes more complicated when your beneficiaries might include young children.

A financial power of attorney is used to designate someone who can assist with financial affairs if you are simply too busy to handle the situation yourself, will be traveling, or become incapacitated and not able to currently manage your financial affairs.  The person appointed is called your attorney-in-fact and this person can only take actions that have been authorized by you, is inline with what your wishes would be if you were acting yourself, and the person cannot take actions that will personally benefit him or herself unless inline with your wishes.

What is commonly referred to as a living will, is actually called an Advance Directive for Health Care, and this document consist of two parts - the Living Will and a Health Care Proxy.  Some states call the Health Care Proxy a Health Care Power of Attorney.  You can implement either of these sections or both.  The Living Will allows you to make decisions about end of life care if you become terminally ill and incapacitated and no longer able to speak for yourself.  The Health Care Proxy allows you to designate a person to make health care decisions for you based on your wishes as communicated to that person.

A Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization is a form used for you to designate one or more persons to have access to your medical information for specific purposes, such as to communicate with medical professionals on your behalf and have authority to receive medical updates about your health care.

As you can see, a lot of undesirable consequences can be prevented or greatly mitigated by taking the necessary steps to plan ahead.  Many families put off addressing these concerns until it is too late and those consequences can be devastating.  Don’t delay, schedule your free consultation to discuss your options.  Click Here => SCHEDULE FREE CONSULTATION