Navigating Estate Planning

Congratulations! You are nearing retirement after a long and productive life. This is an exciting time you have been looking forward to for a while now. You enjoy your retirement party and get ready for the next stage of your life. Now you can simply sit back and enjoy yourself. Right? Not so fast. If you want to be able to enjoy your retirement, not be financially stressed, and know you will be able to look after those you love you are going to need to navigate estate planning.

Estate Planning involves the management of a person’s estate during their lifetime in order to minimize financial stress and the tax burden on themselves and their estate executors. The laws around estates are complex and it is important to find a trusted probate lawyer who is knowledgeable about estate planning. Such lawyers are able to explain and set up a wide range of estate services including revocable living trusts and estate plans which protect your assets and wealth. With a proper Estate Plan, individuals maintain control and protect their families for years to come.

As you work with a lawyer, together you will be searching for the best ways to protect and enjoy the money you have accumulated. You will find that upon retirement taxes become more complex and complicated and you have to make more decisions around your finances. You do not want to unknowingly take actions which will lead to you pay extra money out in taxes for no good reason. You will be seeking ways to be able to have a relaxing retirement where you do not have to stress about financial needs. With a little bit of effort, your retirement can go much smoother. 

As you are working on your finances, you may discover the need for items such as a revocable living trust. While this may sound scary in reality revocable living trusts are simply a legal framework to help manage your assets should you fall ill, or become challenged by the symptoms of aging. These trusts allow you to be in control of your assets and remove questions around what you want done with your assets and what you want done for you in case you are unable to communicate later. These are questions you want to have time to really think through and not have to make in a moment of crisis. 

While you are thinking about how to manage your assets this is a good time to think about writing a will if you have not done so already. While writing a will may be a stressful reminder that you will not always be here, doing such will bring you and your family peace of mind. What do you want done? Who do you want to be supported? What special instructions do you want to give? These are all questions you should talk over with a lawyer so that your wishes can be known. The last thing you want is there to be confusion around your wishes and to have those you love fighting over what they think you wanted. Put your wishes down in writing in the form of a will to protect yourself and those you love. No one, no matter how close, can read your mind about what you want.

Retirement is an exciting and freeing time in our lives. We can finally do those things we always dreamed of doing. But while this is a fun time we need to make good choices and good plans for the future. If you sit down with a lawyer you can have the confidence that you will be taken care of and know that your loved ones will also be taken care of.