The Big 3 Estate Planning Docs and a Probate Tip !

Hello Legal Mumb Jumbo Ites!

Yes, admittedly some time has passed since my last post.  To offer a shameless excuse, the hectic pace of operating a new law office been a bit of an adjustment; but take heart as I am working to build greater discipline in this area, even as we are building more discipline in all of our systems here in order to ever improve our standard of client services.  My goal is to offer a monthly post at this to occur at the middle of the month, so the next one will be on or about October 15th - I am putting it on my calendar as a recurring meeting!

OK, so the big three estate planning documents are:

1.  Will     2.  Power of Attorney    3.  Living Will (also called Healthcare Directive) & Designation of Healthcare Surrogate

So I tell clients this all the time when they ask me about just doing a will.  Any attorney that would do the will without the other documents without informing you of the need of all three is more than likely not experienced in estate planning and is thus not serving your interests.  These 3 documents have very distinct functions which work together to begin to form a coherent estate plan.  The will is an instruction sheet for the probate court, plain and simple, in that it tells the court what you (the testator) want to happen to your estate.    Note, the will does not prevent probate - only a trust can do this - another topic.  The power of attorney gives your appointee the power to manage your business affairs while you are alive and it expires upon death.  Finally, the living will contains end of life instructions and should appoint someone (healthcare surrogate) to enforce those instructions.  I know, not the most exciting or enjoyable topic but an important one for families nonetheless.  I always say that the peace of mind you gain from setting up your plan may  just help you live longer?

Oh, I promised a probate tip! - make sure all of your retirement accounts (annuities, IRA's, 401K's) and life insurance policies either have an individual or (if applicable) your trust designated as beneficiary of your estate.  We've been doing some probates for clients where the estate was the named beneficiary.

Anyway friends, thanks for checking out some Legal Mumbo Jumbo and as always, I hope this was helpful.


Until next time.

Steven Gibbs, Esq.