Idaho Law Blog
By Lane V. Erickson, Attorney
Several times a week our firm will get phone calls asking whether we have the will for a certain individual who recently passed away. Talking with other estate planning attorneys, this is not unique. It seems all too common that even after going to the effort to create an estate plan, many individuals make it hard for their families to find their estate planning documents because they simply aren’t organized. Here are some tips that can help your family in the event you pass away.
1. ORGANIZE YOUR DOCUMENTS
Perhaps the most important action you can take to make things easier for your family is to simply organize your documents. This doesn’t mean that you have to have some sort of professional level of organization. This could be nothing more than having your documents in a certain filing cabinet or a certain drawer in your desk, or put together in an envelope. When our clients leave our office, their entire estate plan is contained in a binder that is easy for them to store. The reason we do this is because we are trying to eliminate the difficulty of finding these documents for family members after our clients pass away.
2. TALK WITH YOUR FAMILY ABOUT YOUR ESTATE PLAN
In addition to getting organized it is also wise if you feel it is appropriate to talk with your family about your estate planning. Even if you don’t go into detail about what your estate planning is, it is easy for you to let your family know where these documents are stored. Alternatively, we often have clients who request a complete copy of their estate plan to give to those individuals who they have given appointments to, such as the personal representative or the guardian for minor children.
Keep in mind that even after giving these copies to these individuals that doesn’t mean that you can never change your estate plan. Rather you still have the complete ability to change your estate plan whenever you would like. If this happens, you can simply provide an updated copy to these individuals and let them know that the old copy is no longer valid.
3. RELY ON YOUR ATTORNEY AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS
The final thing that you can do is to rely on the professionals that you have hired to help you. We often offer to store the original will for our clients in a fireproof safe. This allows us to keep our hands on the original will so that it will be safe when the time for probate comes. Our client’s families will then simply contact us and we will retrieve the will from our filings.
Other professionals have similar services that they provide to their clients. We often will retrieve a will from a trusted accountant or other close friend who is a professional. So if you have a professional that you are using or that you have in your family or that you know it would be wise to enlist their help in organizing and keeping your estate plan ready to provide to your family upon your passing.
If you have questions on how you can better organize your estate plan to eliminate the need for your family to go on a treasure hunt after you have passed, 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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