Solving Problems Before They Happen
If the word ‘estate’ brings to mind mansions, private islands and offshore bank accounts, we’d like to encourage you to think about it a little differently. Your estate is anything you own that will be passed down, paid off or otherwise disposed of upon your passing. An estate plan legally ensures your wishes are carried out. Having an estate plan can proactively help avoid future problems for your family.
Consider this possible example scenario:
John is a university professor who owns a primary residence, a vacation home and an antique car. He has earned a pension from the university system and has saved for many years in an IRA. John’s life insurance comes through his job, which he has had for 20 years. John is confident that his estate is in order.
When John passes, the family discovers that his former wife is still named as beneficiary of his life insurance policy. Her children from a prior marriage are still designated in his will to receive equal shares of his bank accounts and his children will inherit the vacation home because he never added his new wife of 2 years to the home’s title. In fact, his IRA beneficiary designations weren’t updated to name his current wife either. Although John was an educated and savvy individual, he did not know the questions to ask to make sure his estate was handled in accordance with his wishes.
While John’s example illustrates some problems that could occur when not working with a team of professionals, there are greater consequences if there are minor children involved. Even if someone has verbally agreed to provide guardianship — unless your decision is legally documented — the court may see things differently. John's example is just one scenario among countless others that could be described. We've outlined a few other estate planning complexities that are worth considering:
- Ownership of real property outside of one’s state of primary residence
- Coordination of beneficiaries and asset titling with estate planning documents.
- Considerations for minor children and beneficiaries
- Aspects surrounding entrepreneurs and business owners/ownership
- Multigenerational wealth planning conversations.
- Planning for families with special needs children
What can you do?
At Covenant Wealth Strategies, we collaborate with estate planning attorneys to ensure your wishes are clearly documented. By understanding your goals, we help coordinate essential documents, define priorities, and ensure everything is accurately recorded according to your intentions.
We invite you to join us for our upcoming webinar with our guest speaker to learn more about how to protect your loved ones through the estate planning process.
Estate & Legacy Planning
Tuesday, April 8th
4:00 pm ET
Carolina Heinle, MacElree Harvey, Covenant Wealth Strategies and LPL Financial are separate entities and do not represent each other.