It’s never too early or too late to start estate planning. Whether you are a young professional with a growing family or an empty nester nearing retirement, estate planning can protect your wishes and provide your family with peace of mind. Here are our top tips for successful estate planning.
- Document Your Wishes- Your estate plan should clearly outline what you want to happen to your assets upon your death. Start with a simple will, and then we can recommend other documents, like a healthcare power of attorney, financial power of attorney, and a living will, that could benefit your situation.
- Update Your Beneficiaries – Any account that has a beneficiary attached, like a life insurance policy, does not need to be included in your estate plan. Make sure that on any accounts with a beneficiary, you are happy with the person listed.
- Consider Digital Assets – You likely have many treasured photos and important documents saved on your devices or on the cloud. After you die, these accounts may not be accessible unless you lay out specific instructions beforehand. Make a comprehensive list of all your digital assets and talk to us about what you can do to protect your wishes in regard to what happens to them.
- Look into a Trust – With a properly structured trust, you can ensure that your plan for your assets goes exactly the way you want. When you create a trust, you decide exactly what is going into it, who gets these assets, and how to distribute these assets.