The holiday season is well underway with Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas only a few weeks away.
As the year begins to wind down, it’s a good opportunity for Minnesotans to sit back and reflect on their lives and estate plan, among other things. Before the New Year begins, take a moment to go through your existing estate plan and make sure that everything is still in good order. Make sure to give special attention to some of the following points when reviewing your Minnesota estate plan.
Minnesota Health care directive
One of the first areas that should be reviewed is your health care directive. If you don’t already have one, now is as good a time as any to schedule a meeting with a Minnesota estate planning attorney and establish one. These documents are critical to ensuring that your wishes are carried out even in situations where you might not be able to communicate with your loved ones. Check to ensure that the person you designated as your personal representative remains willing and able to fulfill his or her duties and generally review the terms of the directive to guarantee your thoughts regarding end-of-life care have not shifted.
Beneficiary designations in Minnesota
Though your will determines who receives your property, beneficiary designations apply to assets like life insurance and retirement accounts which do not pass through the probate process. Ensuring that these beneficiary designations are correct is just as important as making sure your will remains up to date. If you’ve married, divorced, had children or gone through any other major family or life change there may be cause to alter these designations, something worth talking to your Minnesota estate planning attorney about.
Designate a guardian under Minnesota law
Given the festive time of year it’s certainly not appealing to think about a situation where you and your spouse are no longer around to care for your children. However, putting off the process of writing a will or naming a guardian for your children will benefit no one, especially your kids in the event of a tragedy. You don’t want to risk a possible custody battle or even worse, the chance that no one wants to step in and take responsibility for your children.
Consider establishing a trust
Though trusts are not for everyone, they can be beneficial to a wide array of families and can help avoid a wide array of unpleasant issues in managing and distributing property. If you don’t currently have a trust, you might want to schedule a meeting with an experienced Minnesota estate-planning attorney to discuss if one might be in your best interest. For example, if you own a large amount of real estate, have children from a previous marriage that you want to provide for, have a special needs child, want to protect assets from creditors or want to avoid the public and time-consuming probate process, a trust might be something to consider.
An experienced Minnesota estate planning lawyer can help walk you through the process of establishing or altering a comprehensive estate plan. For more information on estate planning in Minnesota, along with a variety of other topics, contact Joseph M. Flanders of Flanders Law Firm at (612) 424-0398.
Source: “Give Your Estate Plan a Checkup,” by Deborah Jacobs, published at Forbes.com.
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