An estate plan tells your loved ones and the courts how you want to divide your property, as well as protecting heirs from the expenses and stress created when there is no estate plan. According to a recent article from AOL, “Estate planning checklist: 7 key steps to making a successful plan,” an estate plan also saves your family from months, even years, of dealing with courts and government bureaucracies in settling your estate.
How to start? Follow these steps.
Make a complete inventory of your assets, both tangible and intangible. This means real estate, cars, financial accounts, digital assets, life insurance, retirement accounts, pension accounts and personal property. Save your heirs from a scavenger hunt and protect assets from being lost.
Decide who you want to care for your family. If you have children who are underage, name a guardian in your will. The guardian often serves as the conservator, managing the children's financial assets. Check on your life insurance policies, which provide funds for your family after you’ve passed.
Ask potential executors if they are willing to do the work. The executor carries out directions in your will. It can be a big responsibility. They’ll need to gather and manage assets, notify heirs, Social Security, Medicare, pay estate taxes, secure and possibly sell your home, and more.
Have an experienced estate planning attorney set up at least three key elements: a will, power of attorney and advance healthcare directive.
The Will names a guardian and an executor and gives directions for distributing assets. The biggest estate planning mistake people make is not having a will. When this happens, the court assigns someone to manage your estate, and your family will have to live with whatever the court-appointed person decides.
A Power of Attorney allows someone to care for your business affairs if incapacitated. A Medical Power of Attorney, or Healthcare Proxy, will enable you to name someone to be involved with your healthcare, speak with your doctors and health insurance company and help make decisions for you. These documents should be customized to convey your wishes as to how much or how little you want these people to be able to do.
An advanced healthcare directive is used to state your wishes if you are incapacitated about what kind of treatment you do or don’t want to receive if you are at the end of your life. For instance, if you don’t want to be resuscitated or if you don’t want CPR to be performed, this information goes into the AHD. This document can be challenging to consider. However, it is a blessing to spare your family from having to guess your wishes during a time of crisis.
Discuss the use of a trust with an estate planning attorney. Trusts are not just for wealthy people. Some trusts take assets from your taxable estate and distribute them directly to beneficiaries outside of probate. Many kinds of trusts serve different purposes, so your estate planning attorney will help you understand which is best for your purposes.
Determine who to leave your assets to and how to structure your estate. If you have young children and you don’t establish the correct trusts, they may inherit everything when they turn 18 or 21. This is rarely a good idea.
Tax planning is a part of estate planning. While you may not face federal taxes, your state may have its estate tax, and some states still have inheritance taxes. Rates and exemptions are different in every state.
The incapacity planning part of an estate plan is for you. However, the rest is for your family, to take care of them and show them how much you care about them and their futures.
Reference: AOL (Feb. 4, 2025) “Estate planning checklist: 7 key steps to making a successful plan”