Estate planning entails preparing your affairs for the future, including death and other life events. While older adults might give more thought to estate planning, it is an essential tool at any age.
With estate planning, individuals and families can protect their interests during incapacity or after death.
WHAT IS AN ESTATE?
Legacy planning entails passing on your estate. Your estate is everything you own, including:
When you die, your estate encompasses all your property upon death. If you sold or gave away property before death, it is no longer part of your estate, and you cannot transfer it upon death.
Items you own with another person are also part of your estate. Depending on the type of asset, it might automatically pass to the other owner. For instance, if you own a home with your spouse as tenants by the entirety, it will pass to your spouse upon your death.
An estate plan consists of legal documents and arrangements that determine the distribution of your assets when you die or outline your care if you become incapacitated.
While a will can be a central component of an estate plan, a solid plan encompasses more than a will. It can also include legal tools that allow assets to pass outside of a will and probate (the process by which a court oversees the distribution of assets in a will).
In addition to your will, your estate plan could include the following:
As professionals helping people make future arrangements, estate planners are attorneys who focus on end-of-life preparations. Estate planning attorneys assist people with drafting legal documents and understanding laws and taxes that could affect them and the loved ones they will leave behind.
When creating estate plans, individuals may need to consult attorneys as well as other experts, including financial planners, accountants, life insurance advisors, bankers, and real estate brokers.
The final distribution of assets is a conclusory step in the probate process before the court closes probate. When an estate goes through probate, the personal representative or executor must satisfy all debts, and the court must resolve all disputes before allowing the beneficiaries to receive the assets. At the end of the probate process, ownership of the assets of the estate is transferred to the beneficiaries.
Although the law does not require that individuals secure legal representation to make estate plans, many find the support and guidance of estate planning attorneys invaluable. An estate planning attorney can help you identify the legal tools and strategies that suit your needs, as well as draft the necessary documents, such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney.
In addition to addressing tax concerns and drafting documents, these attorneys can help you avoid probate. Probate, the process by which the court oversees the distribution of assets in a will, can be expensive and time-consuming for surviving family members. It also opens the door for disgruntled people to challenge the validity of the testamentary document, further complicating asset distribution. An estate planning attorney could help you organize your assets to transfer outside of probate to make the transfers simpler, easier, and less vulnerable to challenges.
When you are ready to create an estate plan, contact Jayde Law PLLC.
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