5 Estate Planning Must-Do's Before Going on Vacation
Estate planning attorney's and wealth managers are professionals that often work together in creating a cohesive financial plan. We've often had the pleasure of working hand-in-hand with estate planning attorney, Chad Ritchie, of Ritchie Law Office Ltd.
Chad is committed to educating on estate planning principles to protect families in Central Illinois. We've often done joint seminars and he has great resources on his website. A recent article seemed extremely relevant as we enter summer vacation season. With his permission, we proudly reprint this estate planning advice!
- Check Your Beneficiary Designations. Many assets that you own such as life insurance, retirement accounts and bank accounts have beneficiary designations available. For many people these assets make up the majority of their net worth. Many times, these beneficiary designations are blank or out of date. If you have been married, divorced, have had children or opened any new accounts in the last 10 years – you should check the beneficiary designations on these accounts to make sure they are updated.
- Make a Will. A Will is the basic-foundation document of an estate plan. This document says where you want your assets that don’t have beneficiary designations (“Probate Assets”) to go upon your death. If you don’t have a properly signed Will for yourself, your assets will go to your heirs per Illinois law. If you are married with children, that means that half of your Probate Assets go to your spouse and the other half of your Probate Assets go to your children when you die – probably not what you want.
- Have Power of Attorney Documents. In Illinois you can name someone to act as your agent to make decisions on your behalf in the event you are still living but can no longer make decisions for yourself. You need to have two types of documents signed. A Power of Attorney for Healthcare designates someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are mentally incapacitated. A Power of Attorney for Property allows someone to make property related decisions and access your accounts if you become mentally incapacitated.
- Name Guardians for Your Minor Children. If you have children under the age of 18 you need to name guardians to physically take care of them if something were to happen to you while traveling. You can name guardians for your children in your Will. One of the primary reasons people with young children sign Wills is to name guardians for their minor children.
- Organize Your Digital Assets. The average person has well over 20 digital accounts with e-mail, social media, photo sharing and file storage accounts. At minimum, write down your passwords to these accounts so someone could find them in an emergency. Also consider using the website LastPass or a similar service to store and organize your passwords.
Conclusion
The Ritchie Law Office, Ltd. is a Bloomington, Illinois law firm and estate planning is what we do. Many of our clients are motivated to get their estate planning done before leaving on a vacation. We strive to make the process straight forward and easy to understand.
Contact the Ritchie Law Office, Ltd. at (309) 273-1500 or [email protected] to schedule a Ritchie Wealth Planning Session – your first step in getting your estate plan done. If you call the Ritchie Law Office, Ltd. during the months of June or July to schedule your appointment — mention this article and we will waive the consultation fee.
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