Estate Plan Organization | The Plan Firm

Let me guess. You don’t have the time (better yet, the desire) to develop an estate plan. Ranks right up there with studying actuarial tables while defrosting the freezer, huh?

However, having an effective plan is essential to ensuring your assets are properly distributed to your loved ones upon your death. The last thing you want is to add headache to your family’s heartache.

Fortunately, there’s good news. Jumping into estate planning is easier than you might realize by following my four (and a half) tips.

1. When in doubt, write it out.

Start by sitting down and making a list of your assets. At first, this might seem overwhelming. But it can also be empowering to visualize everything you own in one space. I recommend simplifying, by dividing your assets into two columns – the physical and the digital:

Physical assets include:

Real estate such as homes, rental properties and land
Vehicles and boats
Personal items or collectibles, including art, antiques and sports cards
Items in safes, such as rare coins or precious metals

Digital assets include:

Checking and savings accounts
Stocks and bonds
Retirement accounts
Any businesses you own
Insurance policies

2. Create a homegrown estate plan.

You may not be aware that you can write your own estate plan. It’s a great first step to getting your wants on paper. Even if written on a cocktail napkin (not recommended), a homegrown estate plan allows you to communicate your wishes about the distribution of your assets after death as well as appoint guardians for your dependents.

What happens if you die or become incapacitated without an estate plan?:

The State of Michigan will get to decide during probate how to distribute your assets to beneficiaries based on its laws. And you don’t want that.
You won’t be able to make your wishes known for how you’d like to receive medical treatments and life-enabling measures should you become unable to communicate them yourself.
You won’t be able to designate someone to make decisions about your finances if you are unable to do so.

3. Review your beneficiaries.

Determining who will receive money from your retirement accounts and insurance policies is a critical step in getting organized for your estate planning. So, make sure to check that you have listed beneficiaries on your:

IRA
401(k)
Annuities and life insurance policies

Also check to make sure the financial institutions have pay-on-death clauses for easy access to your money. And don’t forget to name contingent beneficiaries. This way, if your primary beneficiary dies before you do, you have a backup plan.

4. Get a free legal consultation.

A homegrown estate plan is a great start. It gets you thinking about your wishes, and it can help serve as a starting point before developing something more formal. However, nothing beats a set of documents prepared by an experienced attorney.

Many estate planning attorneys offer a free consultation to explain how they will prepare an estate plan that meets your needs as well as answer any initial questions about the process. Never work with an attorney or law office that is not willing to offer a free consult.

4 1/2. Reframe fear.

The biggest reason people avoid starting their estate plan is because the thought of dying scares them into inaction. But if you’re willing to see estate planning as a chance to better secure your future against the uncertainty of things such as increased taxes, you’ll be able to minimize time, cost and hassle for your loved ones – while getting peace of mind for yourself.

Remember, you don’t need to be rich to have an estate plan. No matter what your financial status is, the more organized you are, the easier it will be to develop the right estate plan that best meets your needs.

4 (and a half) tips to get organized for your estate plan