The key reason for an estate plan is simple: protecting your family from future problems.
Gathering the information to create an estate plan is probably not a pleasure. However, the reason for the estate plan is to protect your family from problems in the future, according to J Weekly in “Estate planning wards off problems later on.”
If you think estate planning is difficult and time-consuming for you now, imagine how difficult it will be for someone else to do it after you pass away. It is very likely that a close family member will have to figure out what property you have and go to court to figure out who should get all of your property.
To give just one example of how difficult this can be, you can now easily go to your bank and get all of the information you need concerning your accounts. Your children cannot do that easily now and they would not have an easier time of it after you pass away, unless they have a court order requiring the bank to give them the information.
Getting that court order will, of course, be time-consuming and require the hiring of an attorney for assistance.
Any way you look at it, taking the time to get an estate plan now will be less expensive and less time-consuming than it will be for your family to figure things out if you do not get an estate plan.
An estate planning attorney can guide you through the process.
Reference: J Weekly (Dec. 1, 2016) “Estate planning wards off problems later on.”
