You’re never too young for an estate plan in San Diego California.
A well-drafted estate plan can ensure your beneficiaries don’t have to spend large amounts of money in probate, fees and taxes.
It’s important that you meet with an attorney to draft your estate plan.
Attorney Jennifer Reardon will be able to guide you through the process, offer suggestions for structuring your estate, and offer the best protection for your family and dependents.
Documents to prepare for a California estate plan
Preparing for an estate planning session with an attorney in San Diego, California means collecting important documents. The more prepared you are, the simpler your estate planning process will be.
Good documentation will make it easy for your attorney to better understand your assets and liabilities so that he or she can best structure your estate plan.
Take some time to gather up important documents. You’ll want to detail where these documents are stored so that after your passing, your attorney can get access to this information for purposes of distributing your estate.
Here are the important documents you need to gather to prepare your estate plan:
- Bank account information
- Stocks, bonds and mutual funds
- Life insurance policy documents
- Annuities
- Retirement accounts, including pensions
- Birth and adoption certificates for your family
- Real estate deeds
- Divorce records, if applicable
What does a San Diego California estate plan include?
Several documents can go into an estate plan. Here’s a look at what an estate plan should include:
- Letter of intent
- Beneficiary information
- Will
- Trust
- Durable power of attorney
- Healthcare power of attorney
- Guardianship designations (if you have dependents in need of guardianship)
You’ll also want to detail any liabilities that you have. That way, your estate representative can handle these liabilities before distributing your assets to your beneficiaries as you designate.
Consider detailing your loans, such as student loans, car loans and mortgages. You’ll also want to include information on credit card debt or other financial liabilities you have.
Deciding how to distribute your assets
How you distribute your assets is completely up to you. You should designate how your assets will transfer without any outside coercion or pressure from beneficiaries.
If you’re unsure about how you’d like to handle your assets, ask your attorney for suggestions. You have many options when it comes to distributing your estate. Leaving part to loved ones and some to a charitable organization is an option.
As part of your estate planning, you also might want to designate contingent beneficiaries. These beneficiaries get your assets in case primary beneficiaries are deceased at the time of your death.
Feel free to discuss anything and everything with your attorney during the estate planning process, including consideration of the following:
- Who will serve as the executor of your will?
- If you have a trust, who will serve as the trustee?
- Would you like to leave instructions for your funeral arrangements?
- Do you want to donate your body to science?
- Do you have alternates for your will’s executor or your trust’s trustee?
Contact San Diego Attorney Jennifer Reardon for help with your estate plan today
At Reardon Law Firm, we have a team of experienced estate planning attorneys. We’ll guide you through the process of preparing an estate plan from collecting important documents to structuring your trust to reduce estate taxes.
Contact us to get started with your estate plan today.
