14 Reasons You Need an Estate Plan (Video)
Here are a 14 reasons you need an estate plan.
When you hear the words “estate planning” you probably think about Wills and Trusts. Those are just the end products, not the reasons to plan.
- Give yourself peace of mind! Know you’ve done everything you can to save your family from frustrations, expenses, wasted time, and anxiety. Know your wishes will be carried out instead of overridden by the cold, impersonal Judge and State laws.
- Make sure your family knows what you want. They shouldn’t have to agonize over what they think you wanted. Worse, what if you told different children different, conflicting things. How wonderful it will be if they know exactly what you want to have happen and have the means at hand to follow your wishes.
- Create stability during difficult times. When you are incapacitated or pass away, your family will be under a lot of stress. You can save your family from guessing and worrying about what you want.
- Save your family from the harrowing experience of Probate. Probate may be the worst thing you can leave your family. By default, your spouse only gets 1/3rd. By default, it will take 8 months to a year of frustration and headaches to complete before family can get their share.
- Tomorrow is not guaranteed. We don’t know what is going to happen or when it will happen. Major medical incidents like heart attacks and strokes happen without warning. You could be hit by a drunk driver or slip on the kitchen floor. Dementia sneaks up.
- Save your family from the pains, expenses, time, and frustrations of probate. If you aren’t familiar with what happens, when you pass without a plan, everything you own must go through probate. Probate means an impartial, impersonal Judge will oversee who gets what, when, how, and how much. Probate is frustrating, expensive, and time consuming for your family. It’s not what they need during an already difficult time.
- 1/3rd to your spouse and the rest to your children isn’t what you want. Under Arkansas law, this is how things are split by default. If this isn’t what you have in mind, then you need to plan for a different split. Without a plan, that favorite niece or charity won’t be included.
- Be sure you’ve done all you to provide for your family during difficult times. Families are already under a lot of stress when something happens. Don’t add to their stress and frustration by making them guess what you wanted. They don’t deserve to be left to handle probate on top of everything else.
- Protect and provide for minor children the way you want instead of them being directly under a Judge’s supervision. If you don’t plan, the money will go into an account for the children. The Judge will appoint somebody to manage it. Then, when the children turn 18, they get a lump sum check.
- Pick who you want to raise your children if you can’t instead of a Judge alone choosing. Without your input, the Judge has no option but to listen to the stories and testimony of everybody that wants custody. Your children could be involved in a messy child custody battle.
- Protect and provide for special needs children the way you want instead of the way a Judge wants. You don’t have to leave them out. Nor do you have to put their benefits in jeopardy by leaving them a lump sum. With the proper planning, you can give them the benefits of an inheritance and keep their other benefits intact.
- You can’t take it with you, but you can decide who gets it, how much, when, and how. Everyone has an estate plan. Either you write it, or you let the State Government write it for you. The State’s plan is probate and 1/3rd to your spouse and the rest to your children. This may not be what you want.
- Decide who manages your finances and legal matters if your are sick, disabled, or out of touch. If you don’t take care of this now, then somebody goes to court to get permission from a Judge to make your decisions. This costly court proceeding is called a guardianship. And, you should hope that it is the person you want in charge.
- Shield your home and as much of your hard-earned money as possible from long term care costs. You can start shielding assets now against the cost of long term care later.
Those are 14 reasons you need an estate plan but not the only 14.