By Deb Verni
The perfect time to put together an estate plan is before you need it. Unfortunately, most people think about creating an estate plan when a close friend or relative must be placed in a nursing home or when a family member dies and the kids are fighting over assets because there is no Will.
I joke with people and say if you don’t have a “Will”, you have a “Won’t”, I won’t die or become ill and go into a nursing home. My kids won’t fight over my money. My minor children won’t be raised by my evil sister. My children won’t blow their inheritance on fast cars and gambling. My daughter’s husband won’t take half of my hard-earned money when they get divorced after I pass.
A Last Will and Testament is just the beginning of an estate plan. Although a Will is important, it is only one of the documents in your estate plan. A comprehensive estate plan should include a Will, a Health Care Proxy Living Will, a Durable Power of Attorney and in most cases a Trust. Does everyone need all these documents? It depends on your assets and your family dynamics.
For those of you that never considered family dynamics, I can assure you that if your children do not get along while you are alive, they will not get along after you pass. If you are concerned about your money going to in-laws and out-laws after your death, then you need to plan for that. If you want to make sure money goes to your grandchildren, or you have a child or grandchild with special needs, you need to plan for that too.
Now that your head is spinning and you are thinking a “won’t” is not such a bad idea and you are looking around every corner for greedy relatives, remember, you can establish an estate plan now and leave all your worries behind, literally. So how do you go about setting up an estate plan? First you need to figure out who will be in charge and where you want things to go. Estate documents are easy to establish but you need to do your homework. Let’s go through an estate plan step by step.
Capital Region entrepreneur Daniel T. Pickett III has been elected chairman of the Albany Med Health System board of directors, beginning a two-year term July 1.
By Rod Bacon
