Why an Estate Plan is the Best Gift for Your Family
An estate plan is truly the best gift for your family, and here’s why. We all intend to live a long and healthy life, but we never know what the future holds. The truth is that we can’t guarantee that we’ll be alive and healthy next year or even next week! With this in mind, securing your family’s future now is undoubtedly the best gift you can give your loved ones.
To understand the importance of an estate plan, imagine this scenario: You become incapacitated as the result of an accident or illness. The earth keeps spinning, however, and your family has bills to pay and other affairs to manage. If you did not have a durable, financial power of attorney in place before the accident or illness, a loved one would have to go through the guardianship process to secure the authority necessary to manage your affairs. Compared to setting up a power of attorney, guardianship is a difficult, time-consuming and expensive process.
Now Is the Time
“That will never happen to me,” is, of course, our first instinct but, unfortunately, it can and our families deserve better than to suffer a difficult ordeal or struggle through probate court because we avoided estate planning. If you want to give your family a gift that transcends a worst-case scenario, now is the time to talk to the estate planning attorney at Vancouver Wills and Trusts about your estate plan!
Estate Planning Essentials
Estate planning ensures that your loved ones are cared for in the event of a worst-case scenario. It also can help your assets avoid probate.
Estate planning essentials include:
Will: A document stating your wishes for the division of your assets after your death, and naming of an executor to carry out those wishes;
Power of Attorney: A document granting authority to someone else to manage your affairs;
Advance Health Care Directive: A document stating your wishes for medical treatment if you are in an end-stage condition and granting authority to someone else to carry out those wishes with your health care provider.
If you don’t know how these estate planning essentials can help your family, contact Nick Alexander, the estate planning attorney at Vancouver Wills and Trusts to schedule a free consultation.