Estate Planning
Are you concerned about estate planning and protecting your family? These days, you should be. The government is coming after family assets. Unexpected catastrophic illness and excessive legal costs are stealing wealth from families that have taken a generation to accumulate. Grandchildren are not going to college with an inheritance that’s lost 50% of its value or has been eaten up by ever-changing government monetary policies. It’s not what you’ve earned, but what you keep for your family that counts. The most important foundation of your family’s security should be in place now. People that are serious about taking care of their families, as best as they can create an estate plan; a family estate plan which includes a revocable living trust.
Establish a Revocable Living Trust
A revocable living trust is not a new invention from a few years ago. It has been around longer than gun powder. It is simply set up by a person during their lifetime and lists what happens to their property after death. The living trust was originally used in England during the 1400s to prevent the King from confiscating the property of a nobleman. Trusts prevented this from happening as the high courts ruled against the King. Later, the first trust in America was created for the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1765. Interestingly, the attorney that created this trust was none other than Patrick Henry.
While living, what if you can no longer make decisions for yourself? All kinds of things can cause this to happen to people today, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Stroke, Heart Attack, Parkinson’s Disease. The chances for incapacity are staggering. The law states that if you don’t pick someone to make decisions for you in advance, and write that person’s name down on a certain piece of paper, then the court is going to appoint a guardian to do so. The guardian may be a family member, but in many cases could be a stranger; a “court-appointed guardian”. You don’t want this to happen to you and your family. A living trust portfolio should also include durable powers of attorney for both asset management and health care decisions, which legally appoint who can make decisions for a person if they become incapacitated. Usually, the person appointed is a spouse or family member, but can be any one of the person’s choosing.
Many people think of estate planning as a one-time event and not as the ongoing lifetime process that it is. Remember, the only estate plan that matters is the one in place at the time of need. Keeping your estate plan updated is dependent on you and your estate planning attorney having a plan in place and maintaining a continuing relationship. Plans need to be updated due to changing personal and financial issues. And, maintaining a continuing relationship with your attorney will enable your attorney to incorporate law changes that arise over time.
Our association has developed a simple-to-follow process to obtain a living trust portfolio at a very affordable price of $599. Just like Henry Ford did for the automobile, we took an approach to have a properly designed organization and the economy of scale to provide the greatest value. We are not here to break your bank like other law firms that charge $1,500, $2,500, $3,500 or more for the same similar set of documents. When you develop an estate plan, legal experience counts too. Our plan attorney has created over 24,000 estate plans for families since 1988. This is a great opportunity to create a family living trust or update documents in an existing but outdated living trust.
To learn more about probate and how living trusts work,
Watch Our FREE Educational Webinar
– OR –
