Estate Planning – How to Legally Secure Your Financial Future

It is never too late to start planning or improve your financial and estate plan. Estate planning is as much about protecting yourself as it is about maintaining happiness and security for your family after you have passed.

Planning for your own and for your family’s future involves more than drafting simple wills that leave all assets equally to your children. Estate planning is the process of accumulating and disposing of an estate to maximize your goals. The various goals of estate planning include making sure the greatest amount of your estate passes to your intended beneficiaries, often including paying the least amount of taxes and avoiding or minimizing probate court involvement. Additional goals typically include providing for and designating guardians for minor children and planning for incapacity.

• You should start assembling the following documents and information. Tell your family now how to locate them, so they can help you and themselves in a time of need:

  • Wills and trusts

    — Almost everyone needs a will, and trusts can also be advantageous to some. Have you reviewed these documents recently? Marriages, divorces, adoptions, grandchildren, retirement, disability, and other major life events are good causes for revisiting these documents.

  • Living will, power of attorney for healthcare decisions

    — One of the most easily prepared and inexpensive estate planning documents provides loved ones with the most peace of mind. A living will usually covers specific directives as to the course of treatment that is to be taken by caregivers, or, in particular, in some cases forbidding treatment and sometimes also food and water, should the principal be unable to give informed consent (“individual health care instruction”) due to incapacity. A power of attorney for health care appoints an individual (a proxy) to direct health care decisions should the principal be unable to do so.

  • Birth certificate, military discharge records

    — Originals or certified copies may be necessary to get certain death benefits.

  • Real estate deeds

    — Are there survivorship rights or transfer on death provisions for your real property so it can pass easily?

  • Mortgages, promissory notes, loan agreements

    — Make sure you maintain a listing of all account information and payment due dates for all of your liabilities.

  • Registration and titles

    — Confirm ownership is current for cars, boats, trailers, and vehicles. Make sure titles are clear if loans have been paid in full.

  • Financial accounts

    — Are account statements organized and easily accessible for family members? Is there broker contact information available?

  • Retirement accounts

    — Keep track of account information for your 401(k), IRA, employer pension plans, and other retirement accounts. Make sure you have beneficiaries designated on all of these accounts.

  • Insurance policies

    — Have you compiled a list of policies, numbers, and agent contacts? Do not forget home, life, annuity, healthy, disability, long term care, and auto policies.

  • Safe deposit box

    — Have you accounted for everything in it and provided access rights to a family member?

  • Tax records

    — Are these organized and in one location with contact information available listing your accountant’s contact information?

  • Business records

    — If you own a business or are a partner in one, are all of your operating agreements up to date? What do they provide for in the case of your death or disability?

If you decide you would like to create an estate plan or would like to revisit documents that may have been prepared years earlier, contact Mark Reis at (513) 241-0400 or at mwreis@http://arh-law.com to begin planning for your family’s future today.