Estate Planning 101
You don’t have to be rich to need estate planning. Everything you own belongs to your estate, and regardless of how big or small those items might be, planning for what happens to it in the event of your passing or incapacitation is important.
Estate planning also sets advanced directives for medical, legal, and financial decisions in the event of your death or incapacitation. It’s not a fun topic to discuss, but it is very important to make these decisions in advance.
Oftentimes, when I begin these conversations with clients, they ask me several questions:
What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning is the process of determining what happens to your assets after your passing or in the event of your incapacitation. Estate planning also formalizes who will handle your responsibilities in these instances and establishes directives for financial and legal decisions.
Do you need a Last Will & Testament?
If you own property, you need a Will. A Will directs what will happen to your property when you pass away. If you do not designate what will happen to your property, South Carolina’s intestate laws will determine what happens to it after your passing.
In a Will you can also designate such things as who you want to appoint as Guardian to care for your children, or a Trustee who will manage the child’s assets. You can choose at what age you’d like for your child’s assets to be controlled by the Trustee. Some believe 18 is a mature age, while others may choose age 21, 25, or even 30.
Having a Last Will and Testament prepared by the right person does not need to be difficult. But, you need an experienced attorney to do it correctly and make it easy for those you leave behind.
How do I ensure my family avoids probate?
There are ways to avoid Probate. For example, there are accounts that can be made Payable on Death (POD) or Transfer on Death (TOD). Additionally, you can deed property Joint with Rights of Survivorship (JTROS). For large estates it is often recommended that you put your property in a Trust. An experienced attorney who helps you plan your estate will advise you of the best ways to avoid Probate and will make it easier for your loved ones.
Do you need a Durable Power of Attorney?
A Durable Power of Attorney allows another person to handle your financial/legal affairs. It can be if you were simply out of town and need someone to sign legal documents or pay your bills, or you were hospitalized or in a nursing home.
If you have not designated Durable Power of Attorney to handle these important affairs for you in cases of emergency, then someone would need to petition the Probate Court and ask to be appointed as your Guardian/Conservator in order to help make decisions for you and handle your financial affairs.
Do you need a Health Care Power of Attorney?
A Health Care Power of Attorney allows an Agent to make health care decisions for you only if you are unable to make these decisions for yourself. Additionally, the Health Care Power of Attorney allows you to direct whether or not you would consent to be an organ donor and whether or not you would want artificial respiration or tube feeding if you were in a terminal state. Determining the answers to these questions before the fact takes the stress of your loved ones.
Estate Planning is Important:
There are so many instances where clients of mine have family members who have not properly planned their estates. As such, we spend months in probate court trying to settle a loved one’s estate, and I’ll admit, these lengthy probate cases can get expensive.
Rather than leaving your loved ones to question your desires, I highly encourage you to call my office today for a free estate planning consultation. This consultation commits you to nothing, and only allows us to discuss your needs for estate planning.