By Angela Hall
How do you motivate someone to consider estate planning? You can educate clients about proper estate planning and how it can help them, their families, and their estate tax returns. The fact of the matter remains, however, that many people will have excuses to push their legal planning until later. They think they have plenty of time.
There are plenty of legitamate reasons to delay: being too busy with the kids, jobs or other responsibilities. Some find it a very uncomfortable subject, or have uncooperative spouses or parents who make it difficult. Whatever the reason, when it comes to proper estate planning it is vital to search out all of your options, and do it before you are facing a crisis. These are just a few examples of celebrities who did not have good estate plan.
- Sonny Bono was 62 years old when he died unexpectedly in a skiing accident. He did not have a will or trust and left his widow with a lot of complicated issues because of his lack of planning.
- Heath Ledger failed to update his will after the birth of his daughter, therefore is was a unfortunate that his wishes in regard to how she was to be taken care of were not considered.
- Michael Jackson caused his family many unnecessary trips to the courthouse because he did not properly “fund” his trust.
Take a lesson from these examples: be certain that your will or trust has been updated and that assets have been transferred into your trust. It’s not enough to just “do” the documents, they need to be done the right way and updated in light of new laws and life changes. It is also vitally important that you hire an attorney that specializes in elder law and estate planning. “One-size-fits-all” forms are not the way to go when it comes to developing an estate plan. Your documents should be customized to fit your particular needs and desires.
