The Importance of Having an Estate Plan

Forward Thinking Is Nothing Without Forward Planning

Estate plans provide protection for you and everyone and everything that’s important to you. It is simply not enough to internalize or even vocalize your wishes. Making an estate plan and documenting in writing your decisions and wishes for yourself and the future of your property is your key to continuing to live the life you want. A comprehensive estate plan protects everything.

Protecting Yourself

Estate planning isn’t just for reallocating your things to your beneficiaries. Estate plans give you the space to maintain control of your future by declaring your health care decisions. An estate plan provides protection to you by:

  • Arranging your assets to qualify you for Medicaid, thereby allowing you the chance to afford the long-term care you want
  • Designating a durable power of attorney to relay your desires if you can no longer communicate them yourself
  • Documenting wishes for your received care
  • Planning your funeral and burial

By writing down your desired plans for the above in a legally sound way, you allow for your future to run the course you designed.

Protecting Your Loved Ones

As you work through your estate plan, you’ll be met with the decision of what to do with your wealth. You can secure your legacy in your estate plan by deciding who will receive what, and how they will receive it. Estate planning protects your loved ones by:

  • Letting you decide who receives what, rather than the court
  • Minimizing the necessity of probate after you pass
  • Arranging guardianship for minor dependents

Your estate plan lets you have the final say in how your articles will be passed on to your beneficiaries to remember you by. It also handles more delicate matters, such as guardianship. It lets you ensure that everything you cared for during your life will continue to be cherished in your memory afterwards.

Protecting Your Legacy

Estate planning allows you to enact savvy financial work to protect your finances and those of your loved ones. It also allows for your assets to be passed with ease, saving your family from a messy process of arguing over property or enduring lengthy probate procedures. This is achieved by a combination of detailed wills and trusts and appropriate usage of trusts and beneficiaries on accounts. By having an estate plan in place, those around you can remember you for the wonderful impact you had on them while you were alive, rather than complications that arose from property settlements after your death.

Estate plans aren’t just important. They’re crucial to ensuring your life goes exactly as you planned. Secure your future by contacting one of our Cali Law attorneys to make an estate plan today.

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