While all years seem to advance at a rapid pace these days, it felt like 2024 sped by at lightning speed. I love to talk with younger moms who are excited for their childrens’ milestones of rolling over, first steps and first words. As our family celebrates milestones such as high school and upcoming college graduations, those baby moments do not seem that long ago. I’m sure we’ll blink and be looking at marriages and grandchildren. Time flies and a lot of events occur that we cannot expect. Sometimes the best gift we can give to those around us is to plan for the unexpected through estate planning. Financial planning is about looking at all of the future time frames we may encounter.
Financial planning looks at each stage of our financial future and plans for the best way to prepare for it. No matter what stage we are in, there are items to plan for in the near term, intermediate future, long-term and our eventual departure. Whether you have $0 in assets or $10 million in assets, there are many reasons to put together a plan in case something unexpected were to happen to you.
Whether you make it part of your New Year’s resolutions or not, please make meeting with an estate planning attorney a priority for 2020. We hear a lot about investing in yourself through education, career opportunities and personal wellness. It is also important to invest in yourself through future planning. This doesn’t just help you, it also helps your loved ones. I’ve covered this topic several times over the years. I believe it is important to keep coming back to it.
From an investment perspective, it is important to first have all of your financial assets accounted for, consolidated and invested appropriately for your life goals. It is also extremely important that assets are invested at an appropriate risk level to help you achieve financial success. We initially work together to ensure these items are in order.
An additional part of an investment advisor’s job is to ensure that accounts are properly structured for their succession. This means that, if something were to happen to you, it is important we have proper paperwork in place to ensure your heirs can access your investments as seamlessly as possible. We can work together to find an appropriate estate planning attorney to help you structure a trust and other items outlined below.
Estate planning is a key part of ensuring these items are lined up properly. Smartasset.com recently published an article outlining estate planning. Putting together a will is a key part of estate planning. However, there are other items that need to be taken care of in the process. Having an appropriate trust set up is extremely valuable to avoid costly probate and ensure that all of your assets are properly accounted for and distributed. Additional items an estate planning attorney should go through with you include:
| Assigning a power of attorney and healthcare proxy to make decisions on your behalf | Creating trusts | Establishing guardians for living dependents |
| Appointing or updating beneficiaries on life insurance plans and retirement accounts | Making funeral arrangement | Preparing for estate taxes, potentially by scheduling annual gifting |
- Take inventory of all of your assets and think about to whom and how you want to leave your assets.
- Draw up your last will and testament. In it, you should name an executor, assign a legal guardian for any minor children and establish any necessary trusts.
- Your will doesn’t account for everything. Now, you’ll need to review all your plans, accounts and shared assets to assign or update beneficiaries. This is where we will work together to make sure all of your investment assets have the proper paperwork.
- Assign a power of attorney and healthcare proxy to make financial and medical decisions on your behalf if you cannot.
- Write a letter that includes any information that hasn’t been accounted for. This may include desired funeral arrangements or the bequest of sentimentally valuable assets.
- Ensure that all documents are organized, properly notarized and stored in a safe place, like your attorney’s office or safety deposit box. This includes a list of your digital assets and passwords.