Along with many other benefits, estate planning allows you safety and peace of mind in the event of an unforeseen tragedy. Asking yourself when is a good time to start planning your estate is like asking yourself when its time to buy life insurance: the sooner the better. Many of us put off the estate-planning process because we think it’s something you do at the end of your life. There are two problems with this line of thinking: 1. None of us can plan when it’s our time to go and 2. Trying to make prudent decisions when facing your own mortality can be extremely difficult.
Let’s say you do have a limited window of time and have been given a short end-of-life timeline. Do you really want to spend your final days in lawyers’ offices going over what will happen to your worldly possessions? As former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden used to say “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” The sooner you begin your estate planning, the more control you will have over the outcome when the time nears to start executing that plan. The last thing you want to do is leave your children or surviving relatives with the burden of having to sort out your affairs.
Proactive estate planning allows you to decide how your assets might be used to care for your loved ones after your death and spells out your end of life wishes. Your medical directives define what care you would like to receive, sparing your family potentially anguishing decisions. Remember, also, these documents can always be changed with some relatively simple legal modification. Finally, you’d be surprised what you leave behind after you die. Just because you feel as though you don’t have a lot of assets, doesn’t mean it will be any easier on your loved ones when they try to divide them up. Talk to an experienced and qualified estate-planning attorney to start the process today.
Don’t wait until the 11th hour to start the estate-planning process. The team at Posternock Apell, PC will tell you everything you need to know so you can have a comprehensive and easily executable plan. Contact us today for a free phone consultation.