Pat Hune, Broker, 1st Southwest Realty, and Various Sources, January 2020
We all know no one gets out alive. Despite knowing we won’t live forever most of us do not put the proper documents in place so our heirs know our wishes. Some of us have the attitude that “I’ll be dead so I won’t care.” That is a fine attitude as long as you also don’t care if your children end up fighting over your estate or spending a lot of your hard earned money getting the estate settled. Regardless of the size of the estate it is important to write down what you want. The bigger the estate the more critical documentation becomes. For example when the rock artist, Prince, died in April 2016 he did so without a shred of paperwork on how his estate should be distributed. As a result an administrator was appointed and has blown through a whopping $45 million in administrative fees. The heirs are in a court battle but they cannot touch the estate. They have had to use personal funds or sell their rights to various assets of Prince’s estate, at a loss oh by the way, to cover the legal fees.
Disclaimer – I am not an attorney. However over the years I have dealt with many families struggling to settle estates. If there had been a few pieces of paper put in place it would have been so much easier. The family could have concentrated on grieving rather than paperwork. In one case the family was at odds on how to handle the medical decisions. If there had been a living will in place it would have saved thousands of dollars in medical bills, fighting between the family members plus their relatives pain and suffering because she stayed on life support for far too long.
At a minimum you should have a will, living will, medical and financial power of attorney. The larger estates should have a trust. If you are single with no close relatives, or live with someone without the benefit of marriage, be sure to put a funeral arrangement document in place that designates someone you trust to handle the arrangements. This document should be notarized. In one situation there was a big argument among family members over whether there should have been a burial versus cremation.
You may think all this is very expensive. This is not always the case. For simple estates the consultation is relatively inexpensive. For example Windsor Law Group offers a trust package including an attorney consultation starting at $625.00. Most of the information is entered online and then reviewed by an attorney to finalize the document. There is a free fifteen minute consultation to determine what is right for your situation. Go to windsorlawonline.com or call 601-603-0910. Tell them I sent you.
With a little planning you can save you and your family a lot of pain and money.