We all love our families, and we want a better future for them even after we die. One of the ways in which you can make sure your family loves a healthy life after your demise is to go for proper estate planning. Estate planning is about making all the necessary arrangements so that your financial assets, such as land properties, jewelry, insurance, bank accounts, etc., go to the people you want them to go after you die. Your beneficiaries will receive your inheritance anyway; however, they will need to pay certain taxes before they can receive your inheritance. If you do proper estate planning, you can significantly minimize these costs.
While people understand the importance of estate planning to some extent, Dorothy Lawrence believes they don’t properly understand all its technicalities. That’s why, she says, people often make serious mistakes during estate planning. Dorothy Lawrence is among America’s top financial attorneys. She specializes in taxes, bankruptcy, and debtor defense. Dorothy is the owner of her own law firm, the Dorothy Butler Law Firm. Apart from being an excellent attorney, Dorothy is also an ardent educator.
Common Estate Planning Mistakes
Dorothy Lawrence comes across several frequent mistakes that people make during estate planning. She highlights the following three major mistakes that people repeatedly make.
- People often try not to consult with professional attorneys and try to make estate planning documents themselves with forms off the internet.
- Another major mistake people make putting off preparing estate planning documents until they need them. This is bad because once someone loses capacity, they cannot set up estate planning documents any longer.
- The biggest mistake, Dorothy says, is not having any estate planning documents prepared at all.
The Most Important Legal Directives Regarding Estate Planning
When it comes to legal issues, Dorothy says, people often don’t know what important documents they should have. The same is true about an estate plan. If you are interested in estate planning, the following are the three important documents you should arrange:
- A will
- Powers of attorney
- Guardianship documents for minor children
Why Is Arranging These Documents Important?
Dorothy says that arranging these documents is important because it will allow you to spell out exactly what you want to occur regarding the distribution of your estate after you pass away. Having a well-written will makes the process of estate planning much easier and more efficient. The medical and durable powers of attorney give you a way of designating a person (or list of people) to make healthcare and financial decisions for you in the event that you are incapacitated and cannot make those decisions on your own. The guardianship documents allow you to specify who you want to serve as your children’s guardians if they ever need one. These documents together allow you to have a legally binding say in what happens to your assets, yourself, and your children in case you become incapacitated or die.
Reviewing Beneficiaries
People also make mistakes while reviewing beneficiaries. Dorothy strongly recommends not naming a minor child as a beneficiary to any accounts unless you have set up a trust, either in your will or living trust documents, for that child. In Texas, where Dorothy practices, minors can’t own a property outright. That’s why she recommends avoiding this mistake because it complicates things for the children when they are set to inherit anything themselves. Dorothy also recommends that you review your beneficiary designations every year or so to make sure that they stay as up-to-date as possible.
What to do if there are significant family conflicts going on?
It is often the case that significant conflicts are going on in families. These conflicts can complicate the estate planning process. Dorothy believes that if there are familial conflicts going on, it makes estate planning all the more important. Estate planning ensures that your wishes are ultimately respected, no matter what those wishes are or who agrees with those wishes. Otherwise, conflicts can occur about who has the authority to make certain decisions for you or what you want to happen to your estate. Life can become very difficult for your children if there are significant conflicts going on in the family and you haven’t set up estate planning.
How Can the Dorothy Butler Law Firm Help You?
The Dorothy Butler Law Firm works with clients from all walks of life. Dorothy and her team regularly draft estate planning documents, such as wills, powers of attorney, medical directives, guardianship documents, HIPAA releases, and designations of agents to control remains for clients. The Dorothy Butler Law Firm can also set up trusts for you if you want and need one. Dorothy’s firm is a resource to the clients. For Dorothy Butler Law Firm, the goal is to ensure that clients walk out of their office not only with the estate planning documents but also with a deeper understanding of the estate planning and trust process overall.