The process of estate planning can be a long one, and it is full of questions you would probably rather not deal with. But without a good estate plan in place, you have no way of determining who gets your wealth and how your children will be cared for. Along with the hard questions that get asked during estate planning, there are also questions that may seem unusual. The truth is that the more angles you can cover with your estate planning, the better off your family will be if something were to happen to you.
The most common beneficiaries in estate plans are children, parents and siblings. But what happens if a fire strikes the next family reunion and you are all gone? It seems a silly question, but its a very legitimate one. If all of your heirs and beneficiaries perish in the same event, then the state will decide what happens to your estate in probate. To avoid that, you should work with your attorney to develop a prioritized list of beneficiaries that will prevent this problem.
The hardest part of making an estate plan is realizing that you must reveal every significant detail about your past. For example, if you had a mistress for 30 years that your wife did not know about, then that mistress may have a claim to some of your estate when you pass away. It is always best to get these types of details out of the way in your estate planning and avoid anguish for your family after you are gone.
To many people, pets become like family members until it comes to estate planning. If you leave your pets out of your estate planning, then anything could happen to them after you are gone. If you would rather not see Fluffy and Fido carted off to the animal rescue pound after you have passed away, then it is important to make provisions for them in your estate planning process.
When you are putting together your estate planning, you have to prepare for every contingency. If you do not want to be kept alive by machines, then you must clarify that in your estate planning or the state may keep you alive long past the time you're able to function on your own. It may not be something you want to think about now, but you have to put together your living will if you want to have a voice for yourself when you are no longer able to talk.
If you keep a lot of information on your computer or you know your family will need to access your Internet accounts when you are gone, then remember to include your username and passwords in your estate planning. If you change your passwords frequently, then leave instructions in your will on how to retrieve your most current information.
Estate planning is more than just dividing up your possessions and determining who gets your savings account. It is the process of making sure that all of your last wishes are made known, and you have to ask some pretty comprehensive questions to get that kind of information.
