There are almost countless reasons why you might want to start estate planning. In fact, good estate planning covers everything on a case-by-case basis, accounting for the intricacies of each person’s financial and familial situation.
At Casal & Moreno, we work with people who want to know that their estates will be safe after they are gone. If you’re hesitating to create a plan, these five reasons might convince you to stop putting it off.
Protecting Your Beneficiaries
One of the primary reasons that people create an estate plan is to protect their loved ones. They want to know that their minor children, spouses, and adult dependents will have everything they need to live a good life
There are two ways to protect your beneficiaries with an estate plan. First, an estate plan can provide for minors who can’t take care of themselves. Second, it can ensure that any adult beneficiaries are protected from outside factors like drug addiction, credit problems, and divorce. For minor children, an estate plan can handle things like designating a guardian and setting up a trust that can be accessed when the children reach adulthood. With adult beneficiaries who are at risk of losing the money, an estate plan can set certain restrictions on how they can use the money.
Minimizing Taxes
Some people create an estate plan to minimize the amount of taxes their beneficiaries have to pay. Tax-efficient estate plans allow families to keep their money when it transfers from one person to the next. Three taxes to consider when planning include the estate tax, the generation-skipping transfer tax, as well as the gift tax.
Avoiding Probate
Allowing an estate to go through probate takes control out of your hands. When your wealth and possessions go through probate, the courts decide how everything will be split between your beneficiaries. It’s not only a nerve-wracking process for your family but a time-consuming process, too. We hear every year about celebrities who passed away without an estate plan and the fallout that follows. If knowing who is going to receive your estate is important to you, an estate plan is a must.
Protecting Assets
Many people don’t realize that estate planning can protect them while they are still alive. Perhaps this explains why so many people put it off for so long: they don’t want to think about death.
When you create an estate plan with your attorney, you can also choose to protect your assets from litigation, too. Asset protection is an effective way to avoid losing your property in the event that someone sues you. Nobody ever expects to be taken to court, so the only way to plan for it is to start an estate plan that includes asset protection now.
Planning for Your Needs in the Future
A good estate plan considers what will happen if you are incapacitated or can otherwise no longer make decisions for yourself. It includes planning for retirement, insurance needs, and healthcare decisions ahead of time. In case you can’t make decisions for yourself because of injury or illness, an estate plan can designate someone to make those decisions for you.
Start Thinking about Estate Planning today. Contact Casal & Moreno!
Get in touch with Casal & Moreno today. We’ll help you consider what you need to include in your estate plan and help you implement it so you don’t have to worry about protecting yourself and your family any longer.