As life gets longer and the years roll-on, it seems that life gets more complicated and time runs faster. “When I was a child, life was so simple…” I hear all the time. Well, I hope so: that means your parents or guardians were taking care of you so you didn’t have to worry about earning money or providing shelter as a child. One would hope to provide the same to their own children and family – but hope is sometimes not enough if your estate plan to provide a legacy for your family is unwritten. To have an estate plan is to ensure that you will control who benefits from your estate, how, and when. It also makes it much easier for your surviving (grieving) family to handle your estate when it is written down and professionally planned.
Naturally, when families and money come together it can be complicated, especially as time marches forward and family members, money, and assets increase. What we do at the Meyring Law Firm, as estate planning and probate attorneys, is we simplify the handling of complex, inevitable matters that arise with the questions:
“Do I have a plan if I unexpectedly die or am incapacitated?”
“What happens to the estate and its assets now that the owner is incapacitated or has died?”
Many people do not get their plan together before they pass away or before incapacity occurs. As a result, the process called PROBATE can be a lot more complicated and expensive for the surviving family to transfer assets from an estate that lacks a will or trust. Guardianship for the living-incapacitated family member is very costly compared to the reasonable cost of the estate planning that could avoid a future need for guardianship. In other words, if you professionally estate plan now, you will be saving your family a lot of costs, time and worry in the future.
Some people figure the easiest way to deal with death is to not deal with it at all; others seek out a cheap/quick planning solution. Don’t (for many reasons). Instead, please do deal with it professionally (estate planning) for the sake of your surviving family and your legacy. As it will be hard enough for the family to deal with death when you’re gone (probate), an estate plan will make it easier for them in the future and will give you peace of mind in the present.
Free Offer: To put my money where my mouth is and to show you how we make professional estate planning easier for you, I offer to the first 11 people that respond, a free will for one spouse with a complete estate plan purchase or an equivalent fee reduction with the purchase of a complete estate plan for a non-married estate planning client.
Happy planning and enjoy the rest of your summer with family and friends!