Posts in category: Estate Planning

It can be challenging to contemplate the uncertainties that lie ahead, but tackling estate planning now can make it simpler to take proactive measures or provide assistance to your loved ones down the line. Unfortunately, numerous individuals dismiss the notion of estate planning, believing it to be a distant concern that doesn’t apply to them. This misconception can lead to shock and distress when a loved one passes away prematurely or unexpectedly. In such cases, the mourning process is compounded by the burden of resolving probate matters without any prior estate planning in place.

In the realm of financial planning, a concept known as hyperbolic discounting holds sway. Many individuals struggle with setting aside funds for the future, as the more distant an event seems—be it retirement or the potential need for long-term healthcare expenses—the less connected they feel to the idea as a whole. This disconnect subsequently diminishes the perceived significance and urgency of taking proactive steps to secure one’s well-being.

To counter this tendency, consider shortening your time horizons to achieve greater progress in your financial and estate planning. If retirement and estate planning appear distant, ponder what milestones you could reach within the next 12 months or even five years, ensuring you’ve implemented fundamental measures to safeguard your interests. Establishing a basic estate plan, such as drafting a will and obtaining a term life insurance policy, can offer a safety net for your family in the event of an untimely passing.

Although you may fervently hope that such circumstances won’t arise for many years, the prudent approach is to have some safeguards in place to mitigate the potential risks posed by unforeseen events. Given the prevalence of unexpected health challenges that individuals encounter during their lives, seeking the guidance of a trusts and estates lawyer in Virginia Beach becomes invaluable for navigating this critical planning process.

You can’t create a comprehensive estate planning without knowing what you own, what you owe and how you intend to address those various issues in documents and planning.

Start by making a list of your assets which can include many different things, from stocks and bonds to real estate, to land you purchased, to vehicles, jewelry and even collections. If necessary, get a valuation to determine a reasonable market value for each special item or keep an estimate with the list.

Add up this number and then determine how this affects your overall estate. For example, if these assets are valued at more than $12.92 million in 2023, it can be helpful to discuss strategies for protecting your estate from substantial estate taxes by working directly with an attorney.

From this step on you’ll want to break down your assets into three different groups. The first is those you will leave behind for your heirs and other beneficiaries, the second are assets that you intend to pass on through charity, and the final ones are assets that you will need to use in your lifetime. By breaking things down in this way, you get a bigger top-line picture of what’s included in your estate and whether you have enough to support yourself, to cover unexpected issues like a health crisis, and how you’ll help organizations or people you care about after you pass away.

It can be difficult to think about needing to use assets during your lifetime when you intended to pass them on to your loved ones, but many people find a variety of needs such as wanting to retire earlier or dealing with a medical crisis that may call upon them to address the issue by tapping into their savings and other assets. For a holistic estate plan, work directly with a Virginia Beach estate attorney.

If you have a spouse and multiple children, there is a good chance you may want to account for each of them in your estate plan. It is hard to divvy up assets in an estate plan if you don’t first start by creating an inventory of all of your assets and liabilities. Assets inside your estate cannot be distributed to your chosen beneficiaries until all debts, creditors and taxes have been paid.

There are multiple different kinds of asset types that may determine how your assets are passed on to your loved ones.

These can include things such as a personal residence, your investment, real property, cash accounts, and investment accounts. Many people have even more types of asset accounts. It is very unlikely, however, that your different asset types all have an equal value or the same liquidity. For example, you may pass on your primary property to a loved one who lives out of state.

This can make it challenging for them to receive access to this benefit as quickly as possible since they may need to coordinate selling that property, which could take months or even longer. This is very different from someone who may receive access to your cash or investment accounts or life insurance policy payout relatively quickly.

You’ll want to talk with an experienced attorney about how to do distribution of your estate and how to consider these different facets and the needs of your individual beneficiaries.

You may make decisions such as placing certain assets inside a trust to protect a child who may not be financially responsible, for example. Working with a Virginia Beach estate planning professional is critical for protecting your rights and assisting you with your next steps.

It can be difficult to approach the task of estate planning without confronting your own morbidity. Most people hope they’ll live for many more years and be able to provide care for their family members or spouse along that period. However, sitting down with an estate planning attorney is strongly recommended as it can help protect your loved ones and your money in four unique ways.

You can make things much easier for your family overall by ensuring that your wishes are represented in your documented plan. You’ll reduce their stress and protect your desires if something happens to you and you’re unable to speak for yourself.

These include:
• Naming guardians for minor children, so that these children do not become wards of the state and are able to be raised by people you know, like and trust.
• Creating financial security that helps protect your family’s overall finances in the event you pass away or become incapacitated using tools such as life insurance policies, trusts, and wills.
• Minimizing tax burdens by thinking about all of the various tax responsibilities potentially placed on your loved ones, and using strategies such as trusts, gifting and charitable giving to accomplish these goals in advance.
• Making difficult health care decisions end-of-life for you.

Estate planning is about so much more than determining who will receive your assets. It’s also about thinking through your end-of-life decisions and what will happen in medical emergencies. By making these decisions in advance and clearly documenting them as part of your estate plan, you remove the burden for your loved ones having to go to court to argue over this and make it easier for you to get the care you do need in a time of crisis.

Need help figuring out what’s first? Contact our Virginia Beach estate planners for assistance.

Auditing your estate plan sets you up to review your existing strategies, tools, and documents, ideally with the help of a knowledgeable estate planning attorney to discuss what’s still relevant and what may require updates. Many different circumstances might prompt you to work with a talented estate planning attorney in VA to set things up for the first time.

Perhaps you recently lost a loved one and saw what a mess it was to wrap things up in probate and then to pass on assets if that person didn’t have a will. Or maybe a recent health scare made you wonder if you have communicated your healthcare wishes to your loved ones.

Getting your estate plan drafted is not a task that should be completed once and then ignored. Filing the documents away for safekeeping doesn’t mean you can forget about them. Circumstances in your life or in broader culture, such as changes in state or federal laws, may call on you to make edits to your estate plan. A good guideline is to look at your estate plan at least every two to three years if there are no major changes in your life that call you to do it sooner.

A lot can happen during that timeframe, including the addition of a new child, the passing away of someone appointed as your trustee or estate plan executor, a marriage or a divorce. There may also be circumstances that apply from outside issues, such as changes in the federal tax exemption rate, or you’ve moved to a new state and need to ensure that your estate plan is drafted for your new location. All of these circumstances should prompt you to contact an estate planning attorney sooner than every year.