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Estate Planning: 3 Things To Think About

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Everyone should have an estate plan in place in case something happens unexpectedly. Don't want to delay this important process, since you do not want to not have it done in a time of need. Here are three things you should think about in terms of estate planning:

Living Will

Have you ever thought about what your medical requests would be if you are unable to communicate with doctors? If so, that is where a living will can help ensure the right decisions are made for you. It's a document that is followed when there are life and death decisions that need to be made, such as deciding to keep you on life support or take you off of it.

Putting the weight of this decision on loved ones can be very difficult, especially if they would take steps to keep you alive when you wish for the opposite. Make a living will so that doctors have no confusion about what you want.

Power of Attorney

Giving someone the power of attorney means that they will be able to make a medical and financial decision on your behalf when you are unable to. You actually allow different people to have power of attorney over different aspects of your life. For instance, you may have a business partner have power of attorney over a jointly owned business, while your family members have power of attorney over personal assets.

It is not enough to give someone the power of attorney though since you should have a conversation with that person about what you want them to do if you cannot make decisions.

Legal Guardianship

Do you have kids that are under 18? If so, you need to decide who will take care of them if something happened to you and your spouse. Not deciding on your child's legal guardians can cause a lot of drama within the family if they need to decide who will take care of your kids. Even if your children have godparents, you need to make the guardianship legal to guarantee they will take your kids. You may have grandparents fighting with aunts and uncles about who should take on the responsibility.

These are just a few things to start thinking about when coming up with an estate plan. Be sure to work with an estate planning attorney to work on other estate planning matters, such as creating a trust or deciding on asset distribution. Check out a website like http://www.hurth.com for more information and assistance. 


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