3 Underrated Parts Of Your Estate Plan

As long as you have written at least part of your estate plan, you are off to a good start, and any reason that motivated you to get started is a good reason. Unless your progress on an estate plan began with meeting with an estate planning lawyer and following the lawyer’s instructions in detail, you probably started with the fun parts. Perhaps you wrote your will, so you could be generous to the family members and friends to whom you wanted to show your appreciation, and you might have even disinherited estranged relatives, or else family members who have consistently been in your life but have been a constant source of stress. If fear was your main motivation for starting your estate plan, then you probably wrote a healthcare advance directive. An estate plan is never truly finished, so even if you do everything right, your estate plan will still eventually need updates. Even if you know that the documents you are drafting now will eventually need revision, there are some important elements you can add now to make them more durable. For help achieving the best possible first draft of your estate planning documents, contact an Orlando estate planning lawyer.

Successor Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries of a will predeceasing the decedent are a common enough occurrence that the probate court has rules for dealing with them. Despite this, the outcome will be closer to the one you want if you include detailed provisions in your will about who should inherit the share of each beneficiary of your will if he or she predeceases you. This applies not only to beneficiaries of your will but also to successor guardians of your minor children and to the agent listed in your power of attorney or medical advance directive.

Pre-Tax and Post-Tax Calculations

Some people devote extensive energy to reducing the amount their estate will owe on the decedent’s final tax return. Even if you do not do this, at least be honest with yourself about the fact that your estate will owe taxes, and don’t give the beneficiaries an unrealistic expectation of how much they will inherit.

Long-Term Care Insurance

Your financial situation will invariably be better if you buy long-term care insurance than if you do not. Long-term care is a major expense in retirement, and long-term care insurance can pay for nursing homes, assisted living, and home health aide services. If you cannot afford long-term care insurance or do not qualify for it, hybrid life insurance is an affordable alternative. It contributes to the costs of long-term care, and if there is money left on the policy limit when the policyholder dies, the remaining amount becomes a life insurance payout.

Contact Gierach and Gierach About Estate Planning in Detail

An estate planning lawyer can help you see the big picture of your estate plan and then focus on the details you missed.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

fhcp.com/documents/forms/Advanced-Directives-Designation-of-Health-Care-Surrogate.pdf