Tips And Hacks For Your Estate Plan

There is no one comprehensive list of things you should or shouldn’t do when it comes to estate planning. Everybody’s situation is different, and there is just a lot more to good estate planning that can be put into any one list.

Still, there are some quick tips and tricks, rules of thumb, and nuggets of advice which are universal and which may be important to keep in mind when doing your estate planning.

Give Some Stuff Away Now

Your family heirlooms, if they only have sentimental value, usually won’t be valued or distributed to beneficiaries, unless you specifically designate who gets what. You can certainly do that, but it can get laborious to list every picture book, estate jewelry, or old memorabilia pieces that you own.

It’s much easier, and can avoid fighting, to distribute those things now, when you’re still around. You can think of it as a regular cleaning—getting rid of those things important to your family by giving it to the people who should have it now outside of the probate system.

Passwords

Many of your digital assets—and even digital items that don’t have a monetary value, like your social media accounts—will need to be accessed by your loved ones when you are gone. Keeping a list of passwords with someone you trust, or in a designated app, can save your relatives a lot of trouble later on.

Finding Beneficiaries

Do you know the address and location of everybody that stands to get anything under your estate plan? Don’t leave that task to others, or to your family. Take the time now to reach out and get a location and address for anybody that stands to inherit through your estate plan, especially if there are people getting property who you haven’t spoken with or communicated with in awhile.

Inheriting Into Trusts

Ask your estate attorney about having adult kids inherit their property into trusts, as opposed to directly to them, especially if they are married. If you have concern about a divorce (or any other creditor of your adult children) this will keep whatever you are leaving to them, safe from divorce and similar claims.

Retitling Bank Accounts

If possible, and of course, if there is enough trust, consider titling your bank accounts jointly in the names of whomever it is you plan to inherit those accounts.

Yes, you can do this other ways, such as with a payable on death account, or a durable power of attorney, but a jointly titled account allows the other owner to manage the account even if you are alive, but unable to handle your own finances.

Divide Property Not Ownership

If you have multiple items of the same thing—say, 5 vintage cars, or 2 homes, or 3 valuable musical instruments—it may be better to leave one of each item to each child or beneficiary, as opposed to leaving all of them to all of your beneficiaries. This way there is no fighting over whether the asset will be sold, or held onto, or who gets to use whatever the property is.

Get more tips from a trusted estate planning attorney. Call the Torrance probate will and estate attorneys at Samuel Ford Law today to avoid making estate planning mistakes.

Sources:

investopedia.com/terms/p/payableondeath.asp

fidelity.com/viewpoints/wealth-management/estate-planning-for-digital-assets