Times have changed and so has the approach of people in terms of how best to give to children or other loved ones what a person has accumulated through a lifetime.
- The traditional method has been to leave a will.
While leaving a will is good, and may be necessary, there are definite drawbacks:
- The most obvious drawback to leaving items in a will is the fact that it is costly. An $800,000.00 estate will incur attorney’s fees in California of at least $19,000.
An option people should consider is a “Revocable Living Trust.”
- The advantage to a “Revocable Living Trust” is that no probate fees are incurred thereby saving valuable hard earned money that a person can leave to a loved one.
- That a “Revocable Living Trust” can be cancelled at any time by the creator of the trust without harm or penalty.
- While at one time a “trust” was a work associated with the very rich as I have already said times have changed.
- A good living trust should also be seriously considered along with a Durable Power of Attorney and Medical Directions.
After careful consideration of the person that you most trust in your life every individual should create a Durable power of attorney for finances.
- A Durable Power of Attorney for finances allows a trusted party to manage your finances not included in your living trust in the event that you become incapacitated.
- Further, to ensure that you are not taken advantage of a person can be placed in your Durable Power of Attorney indicating that the Durable Power of Attorney for Finances will only become operative if a physician certifies in writing that you are incapacitated.
A Health Care Directive completes a careful but simple estate plan for yourself.
- A Health Care Directive is a document a person can create in order to give direction, even binding directions to a love one as to what medical intervention, if any, you will desire if you become unconscious or mentally incapacitated.
We all want to be able to dispose of our life savings as we want and further to see that the end of our life occurs as much as possible with dignity.