Spouses and Registered Domestic Partners
You want your spouse or registered domestic partner to make decisions for you if you are incapacitated. You want to leave your assets to your spouse or partner when you die. It’s automatic, right?
Marital status alone does not authorize you to make decisions for your incapacitated spouse or partner. Your significant other may not be entitled to receive all of your assets if you die, and vice versa. Without proper planning, it may become necessary to initiate conservatorship and/or probate proceedings. You or your significant other could also find yourself sharing assets with unintended beneficiaries.
Married Parents
You’ve been responsible adults, working hard to earn a living and raise your family the right way. You own your home (don’t worry, that mortgage will be paid off some day!) You maximize contributions to your retirement plans. You started 529 college savings plans for your children. Most recently, you increased your life insurance death benefits just in case. You just need a simple will, right?
A will alone generally guarantees that your family affairs will be subject to court proceedings. Although you designated beneficiaries for your retirement plans and life insurance policies, your minor children cannot control their inheritance. A guardian of the estate must be appointed by the court. These hassles could be avoided if you created and funded a family revocable living trust. The trust would also provide a layer of incapacity planning, though you still need powers of attorney and advance health care directives. And don’t forget your pour-over wills with guardianship provisions.
Single Parents
You have the primary responsibility of protecting your children. Ideally, their other parent is a suitable guardian. However, this is not always the case. In any event, you may not want your ex to control the purse strings.
You need to take the necessary steps to legally document who you want raising your children, how you want your children raised, and how you want your assets handled in case anything happens to you.
Blended Families
You are a blended family. Either you or your significant other have children from a prior relationship. No matter how close or friendly you think your significant other and your children are, or vice versa, a simple and unavoidable conflict arises at death. There is no way around it, you must plan ahead to reduce conflict for the people you love.
The great news is that you can mitigate this conflict. When you are informed, educated, and empowered, you can make the correct decisions for all members of your family. You can even take advance action to support their being on the same team in a time of grief if and when something happens to you.
Unmarried, Unregistered Life Partners
If you are neither married to, nor registered as domestic partners with, your life partner, the law offers you no protection.
Without an estate plan, the person you love most in the world may be denied access to your beside as you face death. Your life partner may be kicked out of your home, ejected from your business, and locked out of your finances. Worst of all, if you have children together, those children may be taken away from the only other parent they have known.
Caring Human Beings
Perhaps you have no significant other or offspring. No matter who your family is, you have people and things you care about. You have worked hard, you want to be prepared, and you want to ease the burden that your loved ones will inevitably face.
No matter your situation, estate planning will give you peace of mind that the people and things you care about are protected.