Estate Planning: The Most Loving Valentine’s Day Gift

We know what you’re thinking. Estate planning doesn’t feel like a romantic Valentine’s Day gift, but we’re here to argue that it is one of the most loving things you can do for your family.

Hear us out. When your spouse notices the gas tank in your car is low and they top it off for you of their own accord, don’t you feel seen? If the sink is full of dishes and one of your kids washes them without being asked, don’t you feel cared for? When a friend knows you’re having a hard and busy week and drops off lasagna for dinner, don’t you feel thankful?

Estate planning is a way to look into the future and do the metaphorical estate planning dishes for your family.

What Happens When You Die?

Whether your death is unexpected or a result of a long-term illness, your loved ones will be wracked with grief. They may feel deep relief that you are no longer suffering, but their hearts will be shattered because you are gone from their lives.

At the same time, many decisions will need to be made in order to legally process your estate. This process has to happen. It cannot be avoided.

Think about a time in your life when you weren’t firing on all cylinders or navigating extreme grief. Now imagine you had to make legal and even medical decisions that have significant financial and emotional repercussions. Your loved ones are in this type of scenario. They are heartbroken and struggling to remember to eat and also having to make serious decisions.

Estate planning takes a lot of that burden and shifts it off of future them in their grief, and puts it on current you as your life is going now.

Let’s talk about how each component of an estate plan can do that. We’ll start with the documents that take effect while you are still living and move to the ones that take effect primarily after your death.

Advance Directive for Healthcare

This document takes the guesswork out of medical decision making. It also removes and guilt or regret from your loved ones because you get to make your own decisions now, while you are healthy and strong, about what end of life care you want to receive or not. This form also allows you to name a healthcare agent that you trust to make medical decisions for you if you are not able to yourself.

This is a beautiful gift to your family and friends. This is a kindness and a way to say, “I know if I am in a coma you’ll be wrecked. These are the decisions I have made for my healthcare myself. You don’t need to carry the weight of these decisions.”

Durable Power of Attorney

This document allows you to name an agent who can make financial decisions on your behalf. This document is a gift to your loved ones because it allows them to legally pay your bills from your accounts and even make business decisions for you if you are incapacitated or unavailable to do so yourself. If you don’t have this document in place, your loved ones will have to petition the court to make such decisions for you. This document allows them to quickly address issues as they arise rather than wait for a judge to decide if that is okay or not.

Standby Guardian

This document only applies to parents of minor children— or those with special needs who require full time care. This document allows you to name someone who can step in and care for your children should you be living but unable to handle their care for any reason. We always recommend that this person live one hour or less from you, as this person would likely need to step in quickly to care for your kids.

This is a crucial and loving gift because it makes sure your children are not left in limbo a moment longer than necessary. If you were in a motor vehicle accident and hospitalized, this document allows your standby guardian to pick up the kids from school or daycare, if needed make medical decisions for them, and to care for them legally without the need to petition the court.

Having a standby guardian in place is a way to ensure your kids don’t end up in temporary foster care while you are unable to care for them.

Will

A Will springs into place at your death. This document outlines what will happen to your assets upon your death. You can be as vague or as specific as you like about these assets.

What most people don’t know is that your Will is the only place you can name a guardian for your minor children. This means that if you die without a Will and you leave behind minor children, the Court will determine who to place them with. We never want the court to decide where our most precious children end up. We want the agency to decide that ourselves.

A Will is a loving gift because it explains to your loved ones how you want them to handle your stuff. But, most importantly, it tells the Court who you intend to care for your children. That signals to your children that you loved them enough to plan for the worst.

Trust

A Trust is a legal contract between you, the trust maker, and the trustee— in most cases this would also be you. A Trust is like a box that probate can’t trust. The whole point of the Trust is to fill that box with your assets— changing ownership from you personally to whomever is acting as trustee. There are specific rule in the Trust agreement that tell the trustee how they can handle the assets owned by the Trust. There are one set of rules for while you are alive, and another set of rules for after your death.

To read more about the different types of Trusts, click here.

Trusts are one of the most beautifully loving gifts to your loved ones because you are giving them the gift of time. Utilizing a Trust (when used properly) skips the probate process and has rules for how assets are handled and distributed. This means your loved one doesn’t have to go to court, compile accountings for the courts, or jump through the probate court’s hoops. Probate takes a long time— even in the best of circumstances. Even attorneys who handle probate regularly begrudge the process. A Trust prevents your loved one from having to go through it.

Estate Planning and Valentine’s Day

There are two kinds of dates: the meticulously planned ones that require action and forethought, and the spontaneous choose-your-own-adventure kind. Estate planning can be both at the same time. You are meticulously choosing your own adventure for your family’s future through action and forethought today. And we’re legal nerds, but goodness, that is such a loving gift! See? Estate planning can be romantic.

Call us at (404) 736-6066 to schedule a consultation about how we can help you alleviate stress from your life now and your loved ones lives after your death.