Happy New Year! It’s that time of year when people start thinking about how to improve themselves and their lives across the next 365 days. Weight loss goals, educational goals, budgeting notions, and high-minded promises are not uncommon resolutions, though most fail to last beyond a few weeks.
Seize the energy of those vanishingly small weeks to do something that will last: start estate planning.
Wills and Trusts
A will or a trust can be a long-time positive for your family, and, unlike exercise, you only have to endure the pain a few times (not daily). Wills and trusts direct how your assets are to be distributed after death. This is an important task to do early. If you don’t leave instructions for your estate, the courts will decide what happens.
Even though this is the cornerstone of good financial management, a survey by the legal web site, NOLO, indicated that only 54% of people have bothered to even make a will.
- What percent of people in the US have a will? 54%
- Percentage of people age 65+ who have a will: Only 36%
- What percent of women in the US have wills? 34%
The main reason why they haven’t? Just too busy.
It’s time to re-think this important step in your estate planning. A will or trust can help your family in many ways.
A last will and testament can:
- Assign who gets what, helping head off disputes and hurt feelings
- Puts somebody you trust in charge as executor
- Name a guardian for any children under 18
These are important things to have in place. They can make a lifetime of difference to a family in case of an unexpected death.
Meanwhile, for those looking for more fine-tuned financial control a trust can:
- Hold assets to avoid probate costs
- Create instruction for how and when assets are awarded to children
- Avoid estate taxes on assets
Make a Will: It’s Easy
Creating a will is one of the most simple legal matters you can do. In fact, it’s so easy that, if your wishes are fairly straightforward, you can make your own will at home right now.
If you write your will in your own handwriting and include a date and signature, you create a holographic will. In Nevada, such a will is valid, legal, and binding. If you can’t do it in your own handwriting, (for example, if you wanted to have your will typewritten, as most people do) you must have two witnesses sign the document. The two witnesses must be disinterested, meaning they can have no benefit or inheritance coming from the will.
For simple situations such as wishing to give all the assets to a single family member, a do-it-yourself will can be a great fit.
Start a Trust: It’s Important
For more complicated situations, it’s important to get a trust made. For example, if you have a beneficiary but you want to only give the assets over time, or hold the assets for a certain purpose such as education, it’s essential that you set up a trust.
A trust gives you much greater control over what happens to your estate. It can deal with much more complicated legal challenges, and can help avoid inheritance taxes. However, setting up a trust will almost certainly involve sitting down with an estate planning lawyer. You don’t want to leave something so important to vague wording and legal missteps.
Get Informed
An estate planning lawyer can help you analyze your needs and goals, and figure out what kind of will or trust is going to be the best fit for your situation. Once these documents are set up, it doesn’t take much to keep them updated as circumstances change in the future.
Go ahead and contact Clear Counsel Law Group today for a free consultation about your estate planning needs. It’s important to take care of your future.