If you don’t have an estate plan, the state of Texas will ultimately decide who receives your property after your death, and a judge will decide who cares for your children (and pets). If this scenario makes you uncomfortable, consider making a comprehensive estate plan.
There are many reasons to make an estate plan. The three reasons most commonly cited by attorneys are: 1) to transfer assets from one generation to the next; 2) to avoid probate; and 3) to avoid estate taxes. But there are many other reasons to plan your estate, such as naming guardians for your children, planning for Medicare and other government benefits and protecting assets from creditors, bankruptcy and divorce.
THERE’S NO WRONG TIME TO MAKE AN ESTATE PLAN.
In general, clients don’t randomly wake up in the morning and decide to make an estate plan. Instead, the need is made obvious to them by a life event, such as:
- the illness or death of a family member
- a marriage
- a birth or adoption of a child
- when a child first goes off to preschool or daycare
- when a child leaves for college
- before, during, or after a divorce
The benefits of estate planning are clear…so why do so many people avoid planning their estate? Because the process requires making tough decisions. The hardest decision clients typically encounter is determining guardians for their minor children. The decision can be an emotional one, and can even create conflict between spouses. But the sense of relief experienced by clients who have tackled this tough decision to protect their children is often overwhelming.
EVEN THE MOST BASIC ESTATE PLAN IS BETTER THAN NO ESTATE PLAN AT ALL.
We advise our clients against “letting perfect be the enemy of good.” The pressure to make perfect decisions shouldn’t deter you from thoughtful planning. And because we want our clients to feel completely comfortable with the decisions they’ve made, we offer free revisions for 90 days after signing. If a client discovers that after a period of time, a decision they made just doesn’t feel right – we’ll make the change, free of charge. Our goal is to make the estate planning process simple, easy to understand, comfortable and rewarding.
To learn more about estate planning concepts, the building blocks of a comprehensive estate plan (such as wills, trusts, advance directives, powers of attorney, and more) visit the estate planning section of our web site, or peruse our blog archives.
Joshua Massingill
Joshua Massingill is an attorney practicing in Austin, Texas. He serves on the Texas State Bar’s Law Practice Management Committee, the Leander Educational Excellence Foundation (LEEF) Board of Directors, and the Success-Werx Board of Advisors. He mentors young entrepreneurs in Leander ISD’s INCubatorEDU program and is active in his church.
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