Establishing an Estate Plan: Take Your First Steps
Every estate plan is a reflection of a unique life lived—of your relationships, your aspirations, and the legacy you intend to leave behind. However, life rarely goes as expected. Personal tragedies, illnesses, and diseases can compromise an existing estate plan or complicate the process of finally putting one together. If you are now in your 60s, you may need to consider:
Creating an Estate Plan Now
Your estate plan can do more than help you make inheritance decisions. It could also protect your interests in the event that you are ever incapacitated or suffer cognitive decline.
While every estate plan is different, yours should include the following documents:
- A last will and testament
- Approved beneficiary designations
- An advance health care directive
- Durable powers of attorney
- A personal letter of intent
Depending on your own aspirations, you may also benefit from the formation of a revocable living trust. A trust, a type of legal entity capable of receiving and managing assets, can be used to bypass probate in its entirety, letting heirs receive their inheritances without the need to go to court.
Revising an Existing Estate Plan
Even if you already have an existing estate plan, you may need to update it. This is especially true if your last will was written decades earlier or if you have not revised your beneficiary designations after re-marrying.
You may need to review your estate plan if any of the following conditions exist:
- You married or re-married since writing your first will
- You have been divorced
- You have had a child or more children
- Your legal, health, or financial circumstances have changed significantly
- It has been a long time since you last looked at your estate plan
The Law Firm of Kavesh, Minor & Otis, Inc. is committed to helping Californians find the estate planning solutions that work best for them. We could help you create an estate plan or work through one that is no longer capable of honoring your intent.
