Why you should get your estate plan written up
“A goal without a plan is just a wish” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
All too often I meet with a client about a potential post-death matter and hear a common story: “Before my parent passed away, they told me what they wanted, but they never wrote it down.” This can lead to the heartbreaking realization that because nothing is written down it may be difficult or even impossible to fulfill what their parent wanted. It is one of the most difficult moments in practicing law to help someone process that not only is their parent gone, but what their parent said to them holds very little weight over what will happen next.
Without writing it down, frequently your loved ones are stuck with what the law determines you might have wanted. This is the default. The preset.
So takeaway reason #1: If you want anything gift to be distributed differently than the default legal rules, you need to write it down.
Now even if you like the default rules and want that exact distribution, what if there was a way to give family members a larger gift at your death? Well, that is another reason to write it down. For many folks, an estate plan that avoids probate administration can save thousands of dollars on administration fees and legal costs. In most cases, a probate administration is going to be more expensive than a trust administration.
So takeaway reason #2: By signing a proper estate plan, you can likely save thousands of dollars in legal and administrative fees.
Now often when I meet with clients after a death, I will review an estate plan that is not quite up to the task. This might be a document that is missing a crucial element. It could be a document that is incomplete or in conflict with itself. Often these documents are helpful to provide some semblance of what the deceased might have wanted, but they have to be fixed. That fixing of documents can mean thousands of dollars spent on efforts to validate these documents in court. There is no guarantee these documents can even be fixed because a judge might not agree with the proposed fix. By having your documents prepared by an attorney, you can avoid this mess of expenses and frustration. Instead, your documents will stand on their own.
So takeaway reason #3: By setting up your estate plan with an attorney, you can ensure your property goes as smoothly as possible to your beneficiaries.
