Sure, you need to “get your affairs in order” or your “ducks in a row.” But it’s more than that, really. You have probably heard the common reasons to get an estate plan: to avoid probate, to distribute your assets per your wishes when you die, to maintain privacy, to reduce tax liability, and to enable others to care for you when you’re no longer able to care for yourself.
Those are all excellent and sufficient reasons to get a plan.
However, the right estate plan looks beyond the inevitability of death and taxes and focuses on your life.
Why do it?
An estate plan helps you articulate and achieve the goals to accomplish while you’re alive. Yes, your legacy – what you leave behind – matters, and your goals will help inform and shape those things. But here at Peri Law I also focus on how you’ll get there. It’s the journey, not just the destination, you could say.
Your plan also needs to fit you, not vice versa. Each plan I create is unique and fits with your goals. You will complete a detailed questionnaire with plenty of opportunity to explain your wishes (I never want you to merely “fill in the blanks”). I encourage you to take your time explaining your situation and goals. We need to be efficient, but never rushed.
A trust that is not funded is useless. Many attorneys create a plan and then bow out, leaving it to you to title all the necessary assets in the name of the trust. After we create your plan together I stay involved and pester you to retitle your documents, change your beneficiary designations, and other administrative steps as necessary.
Your overall plan may very well involve other professionals, and I’m happy to work with them or recommend others I trust. You may wish, for example, to set up a family foundation to further an important cause, help your granddaughter pay for graduate school, or simply find the right financial approach to retirement. I can work with advisors, tax professionals, and other lawyers as necessary.
Your estate plan, therefore, is not an island, and not just a set of documents that collects dust until you die. It is a crucial part – but just a part – of your larger life plan and needs to be treated as such.
What are the basics of an estate plan?
But what is an estate plan, really? In its crudest sense, an estate plan consists of documents that determine what happens to your property when you die and how your property and health are managed when you can no longer manage them yourself. Those documents include, typically, a will, a revocable trust, a financial power of attorney, an advance health care directive (which includes a health care power of attorney and what we used to call a living will), a marital property agreement, transfer deeds, and assignment documents to transfer assets to your trust. You may need more than that, depending on your situation and goals.
“But yes,” you say, “I know all that…”
Perhaps you already have a plan, but you’ve had some life changes and want to make sure that it’s still relevant. Or you want to ensure you are prepared to qualify for Medi-Cal – should the need arise – without burning through your life savings first (read about that here). Or – gasp – you created a fill-in-the-blank style plan and you’re concerned it’s not complete. Or, you have a child with special needs, or you have an unmarried partner you wish to provide for, or…
As you can see, the “basics” rarely, if ever, cover everything you’ll need. You’re unique and so must be your plan.