Estate Planning
Planning for Everyone You Love and Everything You Have
Do you know what would happen legally – to you, your loved ones, your money, and everything else you care about – if something unexpected happened to you?
If you have an estate plan and it’s out of date, your assets could be lost to the State Department of Unclaimed Property, or to an unnecessary Court process.
If you don’t know exactly what would happen for everyone you love and everything you own, then the first step is to find out exactly what would happen, legally and financially, so that you can decide if the current state of your affairs is okay with you.
How Do We Help You With Estate Planning?
We conduct a Family Wealth Planning Session, where we spend time together and you’ll get informed. Before your Family Wealth Planning Session, you will complete a Family Wealth Inventory and Assessment (the “Homework”), which will help you to get clear about what you own and what you have to think about when it comes to planning for the well-being and care of your loved ones and loved belongings. If you decide the current state of affairs is unacceptable, and if we both decide that it’s a fit to work together, then we can design an estate plan together that will best suit the needs of your family.
Once we have identified the plan that best fits your needs, it will serve as the foundation for years to come, growing and changing as your family dynamics do. A plan designed to care for minor children should be updated as the kiddos leave for college or as empty-nesters plan for retirement. Thorough planning with frequent check-ups ensure your plan will work when needed.
Can I DIY My Estate Plan?
Unfortunately, most plans don’t work because much of what passes for estate planning is little more than word processing. You are asked a few questions and then the drafter decides which “plan” is right for you, and fits you into a template. This is not estate planning; it is little more than a “search and replace” of your family’s name and then a hit of the “print” button which spits out form documents.
We Are Professional Estate Planners
Your Personal Family Lawyer® at Succession+ will educate you, take the time to get to know you, your family, your concerns, your goals, and your issues, and will gladly and patiently answer all your questions to produce an estate plan that is exactly right for you and will keep your loved one’s out of court and out of conflict.
If you are a family with young children, then your estate plan should begin with a foundation that ensures your children would always be taken care of, no matter what happens. At Succession+, one of our areas of greatest expertise is protecting minor children.
