Wills & Trusts

An estate plan is about more than just tax savings. Estate planning is about family regardless of how much money or how many assets you have. People, who care about their family, have estate plans. 

Healthcare Advance Directives:

Do your family and friends know what medical treatment you want if you cannot tell the medical staff your preferences? What if your condition is terminal?  These issues are faced daily by friends and family whose loved ones never wrote down or talked about their wishes. Many times, the decision is tough because there’s no right answer. 

1. Give your loved ones a little love, talk about your wishes;
2. Then write them down in an advance directive (You may want an attorney to help);
3. Then make copies and pass them out (We offer DocuBank for this step. Call and ask about it);
4. Aaahhh. Then breath a sigh of relief knowing that you’ve decided and everyone knows what you want and what to do if that emergency ever occurs.

Disability Protection:

We live in an era where it’s common for people to live until their late 80s and 90s. Because most people live beyond their 80th birthday, they are 9 out of 10 times more likely to become mentally disabled before they die. What if you cannot speak for yourself? Do your kids know what your daily life is like so that they can give you the quality of life and dignity that you deserve at the end of your life? 

• Do your kids know whether you like your sheets tucked in?
• How often you like to be shaved or have your chin hairs tweezed?
• Your favorite books/ TV channels? 
   

It’s these kinds of things that you can document so that your kids and any future nursing staff or facility maintain the quality of life you want to enjoy even after you can’t tell them yourself.

Asset Protection and Wealth Strategies: 

The Kennedys and Vanderbuilts are not the only ones who can reap the benefits of a good wealth strategy and asset protection.

Examples:

1. Landed Family: This family has lots of land and little cash. What will this family do when the estate needs cash to pay bills, taxes, insurance and managers for the properties it controls?
2. Closely-held and Family Businesses: 
   • What will happen to your business when you’re gone? Do you have a plan?
   • Is someone trained to take over? Are you selling it? How will that work?
   • You need a business succession plan.
3. Regular Joe: What happens when Sister and Brother both want the cedar chest grandpa made or Mom’s wedding rings or the Christmas calendar wth the animal that you move from pocket to pocket for each day until Christmas? Lawsuits have been filed and attorneys paid for less than this.
4. Medicaid and Medicare take your assets to repay the government for the resources you used. What to prevent this? You can if you plan ahead.
    

Regardless of the size of the estate, you want your assets to go to the people you intend and it’s our job to ensure that your wishes are achieved. What if your 401k turned into a 101k and you worry that you won’t have an estate to give? You’re not alone. There are ways to ensure that your beneficiaries get an inheritance if you plan ahead. 

Beneficiary Protection:

Beneficiaries suffer to four main issues:

1. Affluenza: They will spend their inheritance on average within 18 months of receiving it.
2. Creditors: Creditors attach and take money given to the child as an inheritance.
3. Predators: Addictions waste inheritances. Spouses lay in wait until the inheritance hits the joint account and then file for divorce.
4. Testator Talk: Mom or Dad “said” that I could have X,Y or Z. Then when Mom and Dad are gone, it doesn’t work. It may not work for several reasons usually starting with Mom and Dad not understanding the law, not asking an attorney, and not making a plan that would work.
    

The attorneys at Wilson Legal, PC can protect the money and assets you worked for all your life from these wasteful uses. 

Legacy Planning:  

Whether you realize it or not, your family will remember you when you’re gone. How do you want them to remember you? 

1. Life lessons: What I learned that I want you to know like the reverse golden rule – treat people the way you think they want to be treated.
2. Things I want my kids to experience like meatloaf sandwiches or one adventure – like hiking the Appalachian Trail or owning a business on their own
3. Limitations on spending: the first wedding only, a business with approval from another financial advisor of the business plan
4. How I expect you to behave after I’m gone – how to resolve conflict, how to love family and be there for them, etc.
    

Why is this important? A legacy results in less conflict after you’ve died. Less conflict results in fewer attorneys, legal fees, and court hearings. This is one of the parts to estate planning that makes the estate plan work.