Freedom & Estate Planning | Fayetteville Estate Planning Attorney

As I thought about freedom this Independence Day, I realized that you have the freedom to create your own estate plan or not. You have the freedom to control your estate and affairs as you please.

You have the freedom to plan or not to plan.

But if you don’t plan, you give up your freedom of choice and control to the State and its default plan for you and your stuff.

Without a plan, if something were to happen today like an accident or unforeseen medical incident, the State has a plan for you. And you probably won’t like the State’s plan…

If you don’t do anything, the State has written a plan for you and your family that involves court and a Judge taking away your freedom to make your own choices.

The first part of their plan is call “intestate succession.” That means there wasn’t a will or trust. So, the court under a Judge’s supervision gets to control the process, not your family. A Judge and State law gets to decide who gets what, when, how, and how much, not you. The process will take 8 to 10 months without problems. It costs your family a nice fee to the attorney.

The second part of their plan is for when you can’t make your own decisions during your lifetime. If you don’t plan for who will make your decisions, somebody will have to go to court. In court a Judge will hear evidence to decide who will make your decisions. Then the Judge will sign an order to take away your freedom to make your own decisions.

With both of the State’s plans, you lose your privacy too. Since they are court proceedings, your and your family’s private, personal financial information and addresses are published in the public court record.

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

Your plan replaces the state’s plan. You have the freedom to do almost anything you want. You get to pick who make decisions when you can’t. You get to decide who gets what, when, how, and how much. You get to maintain your and your family’s privacy.