We know that no one likes to contemplate their own death, which is why so many people procrastinate when it comes to estate planning.  They think it’s for when they die, but it isn’t!

When done with us, creating an estate plan makes your life better.

Here are some of the things that estate planning does for you while you are still living:

• It has you think about the real meaning of your life, what values and lesson you want to pass on beyond your life, and what’s most important to you to do now;
• It has you think about how you want to be cared for at the end of your life and it lets you name someone to make those good decisions in your place;
• It has you think about your money, who you want it to go to, how you want it handled, what you want it to do in the world after you are gone;
• It names someone to care for your children in case you can’t;
• It helps you minimize taxes, leaving more for your family;
• It lets you provide for a disabled child or other loved one without disrupting their governmental benefits;
• It protects your assets from divorce – yours or your children’s – as well as from lawsuits and creditors;
• It enables you to gift portions of your estate to your children or charities while you are still alive in a tax-advantaged way that inspires wealth creation instead of depletion; and
• It helps you plan for your own long-term care in a way that won’t deplete your estate.

Of course, having an estate plan also offers you peace of mind that you have done what you could to protect your loved ones and pass on your assets efficiently after you die.  Having an estate plan in place before you pass guarantees that:

• Your personal property and assets will pass to the people you want to have them, eliminating family members fighting over who-gets-what;
• You can spare your family the expense and pain of having to go through the expensive and public probate process;
• Your minor children are provided for in the way that you choose, with a guardian you select to raise them with your values, and with a trusted adviser in place to manage their finances until they come of age;
• Your assets are protected for your heirs by setting up a trust with a distribution option after  they reach adulthood (or other milestones of your choice);
• Your retirement and other financial accounts have beneficiaries named, as well as life insurance policies, so the assets in those accounts go to the people you choose; and
• The financial privacy of your family is protected.

This week is National Estate Planning Awareness Week, the perfect time to create a plan that spells out how you will pass on your values, beliefs and your money to your children.  You can begin by calling our office at (612) 206-3701 or filling our our contact form today to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk.

Image courtesy of  Phaitoon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net