From Kiplinger — By Daniel Bortz —
Estate planning mistakes can derail your plans to protect your family’s financial future. Learning the basics of estate planning benefits everyone — it’s about empowering the people you trust the most to handle your medical, financial and legal affairs if, or when, you can’t.
Learning the basics empowers the people you trust to handle your medical, financial, and legal affairs if you become unable to.
Having a comprehensive estate plan will also spare your heirs the pain and expense of determining how to allocate your money and property while they’re sad and grieving.
What is an estate plan?
An estate plan consists of several legal documents that lay out what happens to your assets and liabilities when you die or become incapacitated. At the very least, it will consist of a last will and testament, a living trust, an advance directive and a power of attorney.
While you might feel an estate plan is unnecessary because you lack sufficient assets to pass along to your family, it isn’t all about the money. It also entails ensuring your wishes about future medical care are understood. An estate plan can also drastically reduce the potential for family disagreements.
One of the biggest disadvantages to not developing an estate plan while you’re healthy and of sound mind is that you remove the ability to make hard decisions on your own.
In this case, the court might determine how to distribute your assets, or worse, your entire estate can go to the state. That’s why it’s critically important to make smart estate planning moves now, and why everyone, from millionaires to people just starting out, should have an estate plan.
Common estate planning mistakes to avoid
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Do you need an attorney to handle your Estate Planning, Probate, Special Needs, or Medicaid/Medicare issues? Find a qualified member of the Ohio Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in the Ohio NAELA Directory.