Estate Planning

We all spend a lifetime accumulating assets for our enjoyment and benefit. Whether it amounts to thousands of dollars or family heirlooms, we all want to see it go to our loved ones in a timely and efficient manner.  Thoughtful planning produces positive results.  Lack of planning produces produces unfavorable results.  Typical documents you will need include a will or revocable living trust, a durable power of attorney for financial matters, and healthcare power of attorney.

Will

A will is a basic estate planning document that will distribute your assets at death.  The distribution will be with the supervision of the Probate Court.  Think of your will as a letter you write to the Probate Judge telling him/her how you want the Judge to distribute your assets after your death.  Your will is also important for naming guardians of minor children, if any.  The will could contain a testamentary trust.  There are several negatives to the probate process.  The costs, including filing fees, including filing fees, are typically more than the cost of a revocable living trust that would avoid probate.  The probate process takes a minimum of 5 months and often more than a year.  All records and files in the probate court are open to public view.

Revocable Trust

A revocable living trust is a document that also will distribute your assets at death.  Unlike a will, there is no court supervision of the distribution of your assets.  The distribution is made by the trustee that you named when you created the trust.  You can decide if you want to make an immediate distribution or have the trust hold assets until a later date.  You may want to wait until your mind until your minor children or grandchildren reach certain ages, such as 25, 28 or 30 before making distributions to them.  In the interim, you can provide for education expenses to be paid.  You can also have the trust delay distribution to heirs that might be spendthrift or that are collecting governmental assistance.  The trust is called a living trust because it is created and is effective while you are living.  The trust is called revocable because you can amend or remake it while you are alive.  The cost of the revocable trust is more than a will but you can avoid all the cots of going through probate.  If you own property in more than one state, the trust will be even more valuable.  Without it, your heirs could need to open a probate in each state that you own assets.  You should also provide for your trustee to take over management of your assets if you should become incompetent.  If you have a revocable living trust, it is absolutely imperative that the appropriate assets be titled in the name of the trust.  Many attorneys leave this to the client to do and it never gets done.

Durable Power of Attorney for Financial Matter

If you are over the age of 50, you should have a Durable Power of Attorney for Financial Matters.  In this document you name a person to handle all of your legal matters should you become incompetent.  If you do not have this simple document, and you become incompetent, then your family will have to hire an attorney to bring a petition in court to have a guardian and conservator named for you.  In addition to the initial expense of filing a petition, you will also have to pay for a guardian ad litem at the hearing, a bond, and the legal and accounting fees for the filing of the annual account.  The durable power of attorney for financial matters is a document you need to sign before you need it; once you need it, it’s too late for you to sign it.

Healthcare Power of Attorney

This document goes by many names.  It is sometimes called a Living Will or a Medical Directive.  It has two purposed.  In one section you will name the person you want to have to make medical decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself.  As long as you are conscious and competent, you get to make your own medical decisions.  However, if you are not competent and conscious, then you need to pick someone to make those decisions for you.  Your doctor does not make the decisions; it is the Patient Advocate you name in the Healthcare power of attorney.  In the other section, you identify the type of medical treatments you want or do not want under specified circumstances.  If you have ever been admitted to a hospital, you may have signed a health care power of attorney.  However, it may have been limited for that hospital or for that stay and not be effective in the future.

Estate Planning Process

The estate planning process involves you meeting with an attorney to review your heirs, beneficiaries, assets and objectives.  Then you and your attorney can discuss your various options to meet your objectives.  Call us today at 852-1888 to go over your estate planning needs.