Estate plans are often used in place of wills, as they provide a more flexible and comprehensive arrangement when it comes to dealing with your assets after your death. Many people don’t realise how important and beneficial estate plans can be, and therefore simply ignore them. However, setting up an estate plan could be a good idea for you and your family. Speak to an estate planning lawyer today to find out how you can set up your first estate plan.
Step 1: Find Help
The first thing to do when it comes to estate planning is to find help from an estate planning lawyer. This will allow you to easily navigate all of the complexities and intricacies of drafting your first estate plan. A good legal professional will make sure that you don’t leave out important information, and will help you develop a plan which benefits your family as much as possible.
Step 2: Draft Your Plan
Drafting your first estate plan is probably the most difficult step, and it needs to be done with the help of an estate planning or wills lawyer. High quality estate plans will cover every aspect of your life, and will closely detail what happens to your assets after you die.
One of the main reasons why people use estate plans is to reduce the emotional burden on the people close to them when they pass away. Estate plans make it very easy for people to manage your estate, since all the decisions have been already made – by you.
Step 3: The Components Of An Estate Plan
Estate plans include a number of important components. The first thing that you need to do is think about who your beneficiaries will be – that is, who do you want to pass your assets on to. This is usually recorded in some form of will, which makes up part of the estate plan.
A good estate planning lawyer will be able to help you with things like minimising the taxes that your family members will have to pay after your death. This can be done through the careful structuring of your plan.
Your estate plan should also include important personal information. You need to give someone power of attorney, which means that they will be authorised to act on your behalf if you can’t. At the same time, think about naming a healthcare proxy – someone authorised to make medical decisions for you – and drafting a living will, which will detail your wishes about sustaining your life in the event of incapacitating injury.
Step 4: Sit Back And Relax!
Once you have drafted your estate plan and got the approval of a legal professional, there is nothing else that you need to do. Sure, you will have to update it from time to time, but the peace of mind and calmness you will get from the knowledge that all your affairs are in order will make the work worth it.