Estate Planning 101
What is an estate plan anyway?
A will is the document that tells people what you want to happen after you die. Your will provides details about who will take care of your children, pets, financial and digital assets. You may provide directions on what to with your body and any rituals you wish to be performed in your honor.
A durable power of attorney allows someone you choose and trust to access your financial accounts and make transactions on your behalf. Without a durable power of attorney if you become incapacitated your loved ones need to petition the court for a guardianship or conservatorship and a judge will choose the person to make those financial decisions for you.
Almost anyone who has had undergone surgery or other major medical procedure completes a Health Care Proxy in Massachusetts. Even if you have completed this form in the past be aware that it may only be good for hospital where you were undergoing your procedure or only valid for a limited period of time. Our plans include an enduring Health Care Proxy so the person you want making decisions related to your health care when you cannot is the person you choose and ensure your loved ones can be easily reached in an emergency.
You may be familiar with trusts. Perhaps you have heard they are for taxes, life insurance, or real estate. Those can be reasons to create a trust, but they are not the only reasons. There are many types of trusts that are created for many different reasons. In the most basic terms a trust is an agreement between the person creating the trust and the trustee, who is the person who manages the trust. This can be same person, more than one person, or different people. The trust document includes specific rules about the property in the trust and the beneficiaries, the people who have an interest in the trust property now or in the future. To learn more about some benefits of using a trust as a tool in your estate plan check out our blog post. During your Strategic Planning Session we will discuss any types of trusts that may useful to your specific situation.
At Spavins Legal we believe estate planning is not just about transferring your financial assets and personal belongings. It’s also about capturing and transferring your valuable intangible gifts: who you are and what's important to you – your values, insights, stories and experience.
A Story
Several years ago, a friend of mine lost her grandmother. She had a voicemail from her grandmother singing happy birthday that she would listen to any time she wanted to hear her grandmother’s voice. Until the day her phone was damaged and the voicemail was destroyed along with the phone.
How she wished she still had that voicemail message. Or even better, that she had a recording of her grandmother telling her stories, what life lessons were most important to her, or what values she most wanted for her family.
When I was first in practice, I would tell my clients to record a message for their loved ones and put it in a safe place or simply write notes to their children letting them know how they felt about them. But so few people ever actually did it. We just get so caught up with the day-to-day running of our lives that focusing on leaving a legacy seems to take a back seat
For more information about how we help you pass on your most valuable assets – your values, insights, stories and experience - to your loved ones, or about our resources for leaving your family with a true legacy, please contact us.
