Study Shows Estate Planning More Accessible, But Still Confusing to Many

Most people understand the basic concept of estate planning. If they’ve had a personal interaction with estate planning, it’s usually due to a loved one who either had an extremely organized estate or someone who had no estate plan at all.

Working with a qualified estate planning attorney is one way to make this process easier for you, and to ensure that you have not only documents, such as a will that determine what happen to your assets after you pass away, but other important documents, such as powers of attorney, who name agents to make decisions and take actions on your behalf.

One study found that out of 10,000 Americans surveyed, 57% of them have fear that their loved ones will struggle to find important documents or handle the closing out of estate administration. If you’re worried about these challenges, one of the most important things you can do is begin the process by taking an inventory of all of your assets and liabilities.

Having this in an organized location, in addition to having someone in your family know where to find important funeral or burial instructions, can make things easy for your loved ones. There are many tools out there that can help you with the estate planning process, but the cornerstone of all of these is having a dedicated estate plan drafted by an experienced attorney. Meet with a Virginia Beach lawyer to review any existing documents and to determine if other tools are needed to structure your future plans.