With your death will come sadness for those who knew and loved you. Proper estate planning can assure that financial and gifting problems after your death do not compound your family’s grief. More importantly, if you have minor children it is vital that you make arrangements as to who will care for them if both you and your spouse die contemporaneously.

The only way to properly address these issues so they do not become problems after your death is to properly plan your estate. The first and most basic step in such estate planning is drafting and executing a Will. Whether your estate is large or small you should have a Will so that your wishes as to your children (if they are minors) and whatever property you have are handled as you wish. If you do not have a Will the custody of your children may not be given to the person you would prefer and the distribution of your property will be determined by the general probate law’s distribution scheme which may very well not mirror your wishes.

With a Will, you can decide who will care for your children and how your property will be distributed. Your wishes can be memorialized in a Will so that the Personal Representative you choose will know how to distribute your assets.

Even if you have a Will your heirs will still have to go to court to have the Will and estate "probated." This is required of all estates, but having a Will makes the process less expensive and less time-consuming. Probate is the process by which your property is legally transferred to those you have named in your Will to receive property.

As with most of life, there are significant taxes associated with death. Proper estate planning can reduce the amount of taxes that either your estate or your heirs will have to pay for what they receive from you. If your estate is large enough (over $1,000,000) you may want to consider special estate planning tools such as trusts to reduce your estates exposure to taxes.

If you have further questions concerning probate or estate planning, please feel free to contact us.

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