Estate planning is a process that helps you preserve your assets when you are no longer able to look after them. It helps you define how your assets will be managed should you become ill, die suddenly, or some other large issue. It also gives you a way to distribute your property among several family members should one of you become incapacitated, for example, because of illness, or is forced to sell your home due to an inheritance tax bill. Estate planning has more items involved than deciding how you should write your will. Estate planning includes understanding the value of your property, how much it will cost to maintain over time, and how much money you will leave to your children, to name a few.
It’s important to have an estate plan. It is, however, a task that tends to be put off for a long time. But it is an important task that does need to be done.
The purpose of an estate plan is to arrange the proper distribution of your assets when you die. In most cases, your will is the primary source for creating this plan.
However, you may also be required to present additional documents to establish how your assets will be distributed if your death occurs during a certain time frame.