Basic estate planning is a must and it starts with creating a will. Even if you are one of the richest people in the world, you still need a will. Below are reasons why you’ll want to have a will created and may consider working with an estate planner.

Reasons to Have a Will

You need a will to make sure your wishes are carried out after you pass away. Without a will, your assets will be given away based on state law, which may not be what you want. Also, if you have young children, a will lets you choose a guardian who will take care of them if you die too soon.

Your heirs will want to stay away from probate because it can be expensive and take a long time. A living trust is a great way to avoid the probate process. By making the trust the legal owner of your assets, you can make sure that your beneficiaries get them without having to go through probate.

As your life changes, you can make changes to your living trust. This gives you flexibility and control over your assets.

It is also important to keep your beneficiary designations up-to-date since they take precedence over wills and living trusts when it comes to distributing your assets.

Also, if your estate will have to pay federal or state death taxes, you should make plans to protect yourself as much as possible. Work with a trusted tax advisor like us to have an understanding of how federal and state taxes work when a loved one passes away.

Make Revisions

Estate planning is not a one-time thing. Instead, it is a process that you should go over and change often to keep up with changes in your life and in the rules for estate and death taxes. It is suggested that you look over your estate plan once a year to make sure it still fits your needs and wishes.

We know that taxes can be hard. Schedule your free tax consultation and find out more about how the ideas in the article can apply to your specific tax situation.