Planning for Everyone You Love and Everything You Have
Do you know what would happen legally- to you, your loved ones, your money and everything else you care about – if something unexpected happened to you? If you have an estate plan and it’s out of date, your assets could be lost to the State Department of Unclaimed Property, or to an unnecessary Court process. If you don’t know exactly what would happen for everyone you love and everything you own, then the first step is to find out exactly what would happen, legally and financially, so that you can decide if the current state of your affairs is okay with you.
How Do We Help You With Estate Planning?
We conduct a Life & Legacy Planning Session, where we spend time together and you’ll get informed. Before your Planning Session, you will complete a Life & Legacy Inventory and Assessment, which will help you to get clear about what you own and what you have to think about when it comes to planning for the well-being and care of your loved ones and loved belongings. If you decide the current state of affairs is unacceptable, and if we both decide that it’s a fit to work together, then we can design an estate plan together that will best suit the needs of your family.
The foundation of your estate plan will often include a revocable living trust; you transfer your property into this trust for your benefit during your life. One of the benefits of a revocable living trust is that, when done correctly and maintained over time, your estate plan should help your family to avoid the cost and delay of probate and minimize or eliminate estate taxes.
Can I DIY My Estate Plan?
Unfortunately, most plans don’t work because much of what passes for estate planning is little more than word processing. You are asked a few questions and then the drafter decides which “plan” is right for you, and fits you into a template. This is not estate planning; it is little more than a “search and replace” of your family’s name and then a hit of the “print” button which spits out form documents.
Single Parents
You have the primary responsibility for ensuring the well-being and care of your children. If something happens to you while they are minors, you want to ensure you’ve made the decision about who cares for them, and how.
In the most ideal scenario, your child’s other parent would be suitable to take custody of your child, if you cannot be there. But in many cases, that’s not possible, or desired.
And, even if it is, you may want the financial resources you are leaving behind cared for by someone other than your former spouse or partner.
No matter what the scenario, as a single parent (whether your child’s other parent is in the picture or not), you need to take the steps necessary to legally document who you would want raising your child, and how you would want your child raised, and how you want your assets handled for your child, in case anything happens to you.
We know you are busy and promise to make the process as simple and easy for you as possible. Click here to see just how easy it can be.
Or, to get started right away, click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 855-965-3666 to schedule an appointment.
Married With Children
When you are married with children, estate planning is usually pretty straightforward. You want your spouse making decisions for you if you are incapacitated, and you want to make sure your assets go to your spouse when you die, and then to your children after your spouse is gone.
Seems simple, right?
If only it was our probate courts wouldn’t be clogged with the impact of the complexity of money and family. And, there wouldn’t be $58 Billion (with a B) of assets in the State Departments of Unclaimed Property across the United States.
There are a myriad of questions that need to be answered to ensure your family stays out of court, and out of conflict, in the event of your incapacity or death. And, some tactical specifics that need to happen to ensure your assets don’t end up lost to the State Department of Unclaimed Property because your family overlooks something when you can’t be there to guide them.
And, if you are in a second (or third or more) marriage situation with children from a prior marriage (we call this a “blended family”), well it’s an almost guarantee the people you love will end up in conflict, if you don’t plan ahead.
Most of all, your wealth isn’t measured just by the dollars in your bank account, but by the well-being of the people you love. You care enough to get your estate planning handled so your family will stay out of court and out of conflict, no matter what.
We know you are busy and promise to make the process as simple and easy for you as possible. Click here to see just how easy it can be.
Or, to get started right away, click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 855-965-3666 to schedule an appointment.
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Blended Families
If you are in a second (or third or more) marriage, and you have children from a prior marriage, you must engage in estate planning that will keep the people you love out of conflict.
No matter how close or friendly you think your new spouse and your children are, there is simply an unavoidable, inherent conflict between them upon your death.
Having said that, this conflict can be mitigated and you can ensure that the people you love most — your new spouse and your children — will each be well-taken care of with the most ease possible.
You can even take actions to support their being on the same team with each other in a time of grief.
It does take planning though, and we are well-trained and highly skilled in planning for the needs of “blended families”, which is the term of art in the legal profession for people who are in second (or third or more) marriages with children from a prior marriage.
So, if you are in a second (or third or more) marriage, contact us for a Life & Legacy Planning Session so we can look together at everything you own, and everyone you love, and what would happen to all of it, when something happens to you. Then, you can get informed, educated and empowered to make the right planning decisions for the people you love.
We know you are busy and promise to make the process as simple and easy for you as possible. Click here to see just how easy it can be.
Or, to get started right away, click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 855-965-3666 to schedule an appointment.
Life Partners
In so many ways, estate planning is the very most important for you when you are not married, but have a life partner in your life. And, if you have children together, well it’s exponentially more important for you to get your estate planning handled right.
The law does not protect your love if you are not married, period.
You have to take action yourself to ensure you will have access to your loved one’s hospital bedside, and that your unmarried loved one will have access to you, if you are hospitalized.
If you do not take action, it’s very likely that the person you love most in the world could be blocked from being with you in an accident, or making health care decisions for you, or deciding what you are nourished with, or who gets to see you.
And, that’s just your healthcare. Without the protection of estate planning, the person you love most in the world could be thrown out of your house, ejected from your business, or locked out of your finances.
If you have children together, they could even be taken out of your partners care.
Estate planning when you are unmarried isn’t optional. It’s truly a matter of life and death for the people you love most.
We know you are busy and promise to make the process as simple and easy for you as possible. Click here to see just how easy it can be
Or, to get started right away, click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 855-965-3666 to schedule an appointment.