If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 18 years of practicing estate planning law it’s that most people believe completing their estate planning is more complicated than it really is. After helping hundreds of clients complete their estate planning I’ve come to see that the process is really quite simple. In fact, there really are only three main steps to completing your estate planning. When he steps are considered and followed creating an estate plan is really quite easy.
1. REVIEW YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
The first step is that you need to review the relationships that you have in your life. Reviewing your relationships means that you simply take a look at the relationships that you have in your life. This could mean that you have a spouse, or that you have parents, or that you have children, or that you have close family friends that you would like to consider as well in your estate planning.
As an example, I have many clients who believe that there is no need for them to complete their estate planning because they don’t really have any assets. I have to remind them that they have minor children who need to be planned for. By choosing a guardian in their estate plan to take care of their children and choosing an individual who can handle the finances for those children until they become adults, they have made effective use of creating an estate plan, even if there aren’t many assets.
Really the purpose of estate planning is to care for yourself during your life and to provide for those that you care about after you pass away. This means more than just giving away your assets. When you review the relationships that you have in your own life it will help you appreciate understand the need to complete your estate planning.
2. REVIEW YOUR OWN CIRCUMSTANCES
The next important step is that you need to review the circumstances that exist in your own life. It’s possible that you already completed your estate planning. However your circumstances may have changed. It could be that you have just recently married. Alternatively you may have recently become divorced, or your spouse of many years may have recently passed away. Additionally, It might be that you recently had a new baby born into your family. Whatever the change of circumstances that have occurred in your life, they need to be considered in your estate plan.
Whenever there is a major life events such as a birth, death, a marriage, or if you have moved, it is a good time to review your estate plan to make sure that it’s still meets the needs that you have in your own life. Additionally, sometimes just the passage of time make create a need to change your estate plan.
3. REVIEW YOUR ASSETS
The final, and perhaps the least important step to consider is to review the assets that you have and create a plan for who those assets will go to at your death. Don’t get me wrong, assets are important and there needs to be a plan to take care of them. However, the relationships and circumstances in your life discussed above are far more important than the assets that you had to give away at your death.
Having said that, it is still important for you to have a good plan in place so that your assets can be distributed in a way that helps the people in your life rather than hurting them. For instance, if you have minor children, you cannot give assets directly to them upon your death. Rather it would be wise for you to set up a Minor’s trust to hold those assets for the benefit of your children until they reach an age where you believe they will be capable of handling those assets. In the meantime those assets can’t be used to the trust of that your children add a help them without putting money directly into their hands.
If you have concerns about setting up your own estate planning, or if your circumstances have made it necessary to make changes to your estate plan, we can help. Call us toll free at 877-232-6101 or 208-232-6101 for a consultation with Lane Erickson and the Racine Olson team of Estate Planning attorneys in Idaho. You can also email Lane Erickson directly at lve@racinelaw.net. We will answer your Idaho Estate Planning questions and will help you solve your Idaho Estate Planning problems.
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