Top Ten Reasons to Create an Estate Plan

1. Provide financial stability for your surviving spouse or partner, children, grandchildren, and even your pets.
2. Preserve and protect your assets for the next generation.
3. Make sure your wishes are carried out when you can no longer manage your affairs. It is important to have both a durable power of attorney and an advance health care directive to ensure this is done properly.
4. Support your a charity or charitable cause with a gift of money, securities, or other property.
5. Distribute assets in a timely fashion, with minimal legal costs, hassles and delays.
6. Minimize taxes and expenses that go along with transferring assets from your estate.
7. Cover final expenses (such as burial or cremation) and reduce the burden of these costs on your family.
8. Avoid problems for your loved ones by ensuring that the beneficiaries named on your life insurance and retirement plans are the people you want.
9. Protect your family’s privacy with an estate plan designed to prevent your estate planning documents from becoming a public record.
10. Set and meet the expectations of your surviving family members so as to minimize confusion or misunderstanding about your estate plan.

A good first step is to take an inventory of your assets and estimate their value. Choose your beneficiaries and decide how you want them to benefit from your assets after you pass away.

You may be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to other aspects of your financial life, but estate planning is one area where it is smart to get professional legal guidance. The process can entail preparing a last will, a living trust, naming beneficiaries for insurance policies and retirement accounts, and selecting guardians for minor children or pets.

Given the complexities of most estate plans, you’ll want to work with a qualified estate planning attorney. You may also find it helpful to work with other professionals, such as a financial planner, an insurance agent, or an accountant. But your attorney should always be the one who prepares your estate planning documents.

To find a qualified estate planning attorney, you can search online, or ask family, friends, or neighbors for recommendations. Estate planning involves some of your most personal information, so it is important that you be comfortable with the estate planning attorney who is helping you.