8 Essential Steps for Estate Planning
How To Make A Perfect Estate Plan
- Know what an estate plan provides
You need to know what comes with an estate plan just so you’re aware of what you’re getting. An estate plan includes your Will, a trust, power of attorney, and health care proxies. With this plan, all your belongings are guaranteed protection and even debts that you have on your behalf would be paid for as well.
- List all your assets and government funds
Now you need to list what you want to protect or still keep. Your government funds include 401K, money on your life insurance, and your retirement money you’ve been working your whole life should be listed as an asset. Make sure you also list every account you have including saving and private accounts. Any stocks, investments and organizations or companies you own can also be part of what you want to protect. All these assets will come in handy to those debts you have to pay in the end.
- List all your debts and schedule payments from assets or funds to beneficiaries.
When it comes to making an estate plan, it is beneficial if you keep your debts in check and schedule payments from any of your assets you want to pay it by. Even after your death, these payments are still expected to be handled or else your spouse with members of the family are asked to pay for it all. Make sure you list all your debts that you still owe and pay for it all by this estate plan through your direction. It would be upsetting to members of the family who receive a bill to the debts that could have been easily prevented if you start with an estate plan.
- Draft Your Will
Now that you’ve listed all your assets and debts, it’s important to list it all in how you want it to be paid for or inherited for it all. Make sure it’s NOT hand written because many issues can surely unfold if this comes to place. It needs to be typed and then you’re able to take the draft to an estate lawyer who can help out the rest.
- Think of an executor or representative
An executor is someone who will do all the tasks that you’ve written according to your will but please note that this has to be someone you trust to do it all. When it comes to making a trust or using your own attorney to manage your assets you can also use a representative. A representative can do it, but again, your lawyer or an executor is who you’re giving further tasks according to everything listed. No matter who you choose, there would be someone who would be able to do such things.
- Have an Estate Lawyer look at the draft and add other enhancements on it.
Once you’ve listed all your assets and expenses that you owe including an executor with the representative you are ready to show the draft to your estate lawyer. No matter who your lawyer is, he or she can point out any mistakes that have been recorded during the draft process and enhance it through any recommendations with assets you didn’t think you had. These people are trained to have you get as much as you can and protect yourself from any kind of interference. Your lawyer will finalize everything you’ve written and will then start the trust process to take your government funds towards anything in particular you need paying off.
- Get A Trust
Morgan Legan Group can give you extra security with all your belongings and with whatever truster you hire will hold it all for you. Your trust or can also manage all your finances and have all your debts paid for either monthly or yearly. Whoever you pick should also be someone you trust since everything you own is in his or her hands. If you don’t have someone listed as a truster, you can always pick your estate lawyer which brings power of attorney into place.
- Think of getting a health care proxy
Through a power of attorney you not only have your assets protected, debts paid for and everything going along according to your direction, you will be provided with healthcare proxies. Healthcare proxies is healthcare you may need in the future when it comes to aging or not making the right decisions due to not being in the right train of thought. These are instructions on the healthcare you’ve requested when reaching a paralyzed state to keep you alive, all done by your power of attorney.
