If you have a family or a small business, it’s safe to assume that you want to keep them protected, even after you’re gone.
Working with a San Diego estate planning attorney allows you to build a plan for your family and your assets ahead of time, so that there’s no confusion about your wishes or difficulty following through with them.
If you have a family or a small business, it’s safe to assume that you want to keep them protected, even after you’re gone.
Working with a San Diego estate planning attorney allows you to build a plan for your family and your assets ahead of time, so that there’s no confusion about your wishes or difficulty following through with them.
This can include:
You don’t want these assets getting to someone before you think they’re ready for them — or worse, your assets falling into the wrong hands or your family fighting over everything.
That’s where estate planning comes in.
People are often surprised to learn that estate planning is important for more than just purposes of dividing up family money.
In fact, some of the most contentious fights that estate planning attorney Jennifer Reardon has ever seen are over the household items, family heirlooms, and physical items of emotional importance to a family.
Unfortunately, Jennifer knows all too well the complications that arise in these instances — when her grandmother died, she had an estate plan in place, but it didn’t take all the details into account. So Jennifer’s family was dragged through a 2-year process of fighting and bickering in the courts.
Again, it wasn’t the money people fought over — it was the things. People fought over her grandmother’s wedding ring, the art hanging up in the house, the Christmas china.
For Jennifer, all she wanted was her favorite purple mug from her grandmother’s house. Thankfully, she got it. But the entire process of family feuding only made her grandmother’s loss that much more difficult.
Hiring an estate plan attorney allows you to create a plan ahead of time and make sure your loved ones aren’t left to suffer the same fate after you’re gone.
Having a plan in place ensures all of these assets go where you want them to go at the time you designate.
An estate planning attorney can help you organize a system that will facilitate the transfer and management of your assets after your death. If you don’t have a plan in place when you die, you give up your ability to decide how everything will be divided.
The most well-known tool in the estate planning process is the will. As most people know, wills outline your wishes to your family in regards to inheritance and distribution of property, as well as guardianship of your children.
Trusts are not only for the uber-wealthy. Like wills, trusts explain exactly which family members should receive your assets and when, but trusts also allow you to continually manage your affairs while you’re still alive.
Via a Power of Attorney, you designate an agent — someone you trust — to make decisions for you if you are alive and unable to make them yourself. POAs are usually for health care needs (Health Care Power of Attorney) or financial/property decisions. If you entrust someone to handle your financial affairs and decisions if you are sick or incapacitated, you won’t need to file for guardianship or worry about writing checks, selling real estate, etc. Once you die, however, the agent in your Power of Attorney is no longer able to act on your behalf.
It’s difficult to have a conversation about the future — especially one where you aren’t around. But it’s important to discuss your wishes with your family members or the people who will be taking over your business. Always be sure that someone knows about your plan (even if they don’t know the specifics) so that they can get in touch with your estate planning attorney after your passing.
Including your business in your estate planning process is extremely important. An estate planning attorney can help you figure out the logistical and financial decisions of who will take over your business upon your death, disability, or even retirement.
As a business owner, you’ll need to be thinking about the following items in conjunction with your family’s plan:
No matter what needs to be done, ensuring that you have a competent, compassionate attorney is the most important step to making a plan that works for you, your family, and your business.
Our San Diego-based Reardon Law Firm has seen the mess that can happen when a plan isn’t put into place — or a plan that isn’t well-thought-out or comprehensive falls through. That’s why we want to work with you to ensure that your plan is perfect for your family.
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