It’s that time of year again. Yes, it is New Year’s resolution time. Was making a will one of your unfulfilled resolutions from past years? Is it on your “to-do” list for 2019? The good news is that with a modest investment of time and effort, you will be able to check this off your list in just a couple of weeks and you won’t even have to go to the gym to get it done!
It is natural to focus on our families during the holiday season, to think about everything they add to our lives and how lucky we are to have them. As people think about Estate Planning, they often focus on dividing and distributing their belongings and financial assets.
Holidays give us the opportunity to spend more time with family. When we spend more time with our aging parents at these holiday gatherings, we often notice the early indications that a parent is slipping. You may notice a parent forgetting things or no longer participating in things he or she always enjoyed. Perhaps it is a conversation over coffee, and a short while later, Dad is repeating himself with no signs that he remembers the same conversation the two of you had that morning.
“Trick or treat” rings out every Halloween as children go door to door hoping for their favorite candy. My kids love sorting the candy at the end of the night and finding surprises in their candy haul.
The numbers vary somewhat from survey to survey, but each new study that is released reveals that large numbers of Americans do not have a will. Not having a will is shorthand for not having any estate planning in place.
In the middle of a Georgia summer, the days are long and it seems like we’ve got more time for the things we enjoy. The kids are out of school, and work slows down a little. If we’re lucky, we get some extra time with our family, spend lazy days at the pool, and vacation with children and grandchildren. It can feel like summer will last forever.
When it comes to estate planning, the most familiar document is the last will and testament. Most people have a basic understanding that a will allows you to appoint a personal representative (an executor) upon your death and directs that person to distribute your assets as you specify. Put another way, a will says who gets your stuff when you die—but until you die, it does nothing.
The largest obstacle to effective estate planning is procrastination. Sitting down to prepare a Last Will and Testament is not at the top of anyone’s “this is a fun thing to do” list. Yet death, like taxes is a certainty.
If the distribution of your property is important to you, you can use a will or a trust to give instructions about who gets what when you die. If you die without a properly executed estate plan, state law will determine how the probate court will divide and distribute the things you own. Of course, the state of Georgia’s estate plan won’t take your particular wishes into account. So, most people prefer to put their own plan into place.
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