A lot of attorneys, it seems, assume what your goals are when you walk into their office to have them draft your final documents: You want them to save as many taxes as possible, and pass on as much of your estate to your children–your heirs–as possible. But, of course, your goals may go far beyond these things. And, in fact–as is the case with my wife and me–you may not wants to pass everything along to your heirs.

It’s always helpful, when you walk into your attorney’s office, if you already have your goals clearly in mind. To help clarify some of these issues for you, consider the following list. What’s on your mind, and how important are they to you? (If two of these goals compete, which one do you want to “win”?)

• Some very basic questions:
  • How much of your estate do you want to go to your spouse and how much to the kids? And under what circumstances?
  • Any special items–things of unique sentimental value–you want to give to one person or another?
  • What do you want to have happen in the event your spouse survives you and remarries?
  • Do you need to provide for or protect your spouse in some special way? (Any special needs or disabilities?)
  • Do you need to provide for or protect one or more of your children in some special way? (Any special needs or disabilities–like learning disabilities?)
  • How about providing for or offering some kind of special protection for one or more of your grandchildren? (Same questions as above.)
  • Is there someone in particular to whom you want to be sure to give the more than the state might expect? Someone to whom you might want to give lessdisinherit?
  • What are your charitable interests and how would you like to pursue them at death and/or if you are declared mentally incompetent at some time before you die?
  • Do you own one or more family businesses? What are your desires with respect to them and their survival? To whom do you want your ownership interests to be transferred and in what way (s)?
  • What do you want to happen in case you become disabled or mentally incompetent? (I’m thinking not only in terms of your personal care, but, if you own a business, who should take over.) . . . Would you have any specific interest in controlling or defining the circumstances under which you might be declared mentally incompetent or disabled? Do you want to avoid–or prearrange your affairs in anticipation of or preparation for–a conservatorship (also known as “living probate”)?
• Do you have any special concerns about the administration of your estate at your death?
  • How important is it to you to avoid or reduce estate taxes?
  • How about avoiding probate?
  • Reducing administrative costs (time) at your death?
  • Avoiding will contests or other disputes among family members?
• Additional items that a good estate plan will usually address:
  • Protecting your children’s inheritances from their (soon-to-be-ex-)spouses in case of divorce.
  • What do you want done, medically, if you are severely injured and near death? How many heroic measures should medical staff take in your behalf?
  • Any other issues?
• Properly structured estate plan documents are also able to:
  • Help protect your family’s assets from lawsuits or creditors.
  • Help protect your (and your estate’s) privacy so that your affairs don’t become matters of public record.

If you have questions about any of these kinds of issues, almost any competent attorney will be able to address them with you.you may even want to ask, What are the options? But I have always found that having the questions in mind puts me at an advantage compared with a person who doesn’t even know what questions to ask.

I expect we will address many of these issues in greater detail at a later date. For now, however, I simply want to note some of the reasons even people with few assets should seriously think about getting an estate plan together.

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John Holzmann

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 7:36 am and is filed under estate planning, legacy planning, purpose, questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.