Your estate plan should account for the many stages of life that you experience. Below is a rundown of the estate-planning tools you should have if you’re just beginning your life’s journey, halfway through, or approaching the homestretch.

Ch. 1: Planning for life

• 8 life stages for planning
• The basics of estate planning
• Estate-planning Q&A
• Should you have a will?

(Why You Need to Put Your Living Together Agreement in Writing)

Young, single and carefree

Parents make financial decisions for children by law, until they reach 18, and that legal right is vanquished. Consider the worse, if something happened to you, it is in your best interest for your parents to have access and control to your health care and financial decisions. Access to your medical providers, and more importantly, a say in your health care decisions protects you in the event of the unforeseen.

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If you’re over 18 and unmarried, execute four documents to ensure  your loved ones can carry out your wishes:

1. A general durable power of attorney enables you to designate who will control your finances if you become incapacitated, whether it’s your parents or another loved one.
2. A health care proxy allows you to designate who will make medical decisions on your behalf in the same situation.
3. A living will lets you lay out your wishes regarding life-sustaining medical treatment.

Estate planning life stages

1. Young and single.
2. Single, but committed.
3. Engaged.
4. Just married.
5. Parents.
6. Divorced.
7. The middle years.
8. The golden years.

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4. Finally, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, release enables your designated agent to discuss your medical condition without violating patient privacy laws. Without those documents, loved ones may have to resort to seeking guardianship over you in court at a time when it is the last thing in the world that they want to be doing.

Single, but committed

A will or trust can ensure your life partner inherits your possessions if you’re in a long-term relationship but unmarried. Otherwise, state law deems that they go to your closest relatives.

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We’re engaged!

A prenuptial agreement isn’t only for people who have a lot of money. It’s essential for everybody. A lot of people divorce because they’ve never had conversations about money. A prenuptial agreement forces people to engage in this financial conversation.

Just married

Edit your durable power of attorney, health care proxy and HIPAA release if you want to eliminate any question that your spouse should control your financial and medical decisions if you become incapacitated. Think of Terri Schiavo, referring to the woman whose parents and husband battled publicly for seven years over the right to make health care decisions on her behalf after she became incapacitated. She didn’t have a health care proxy.

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If you do not have a revised durable power of attorney, your spouse also can’t administer property solely in your name or property you hold jointly with your spouse. Also, indicate the person you’d like to make financial and medical decisions on your behalf in the event an accident incapacitates you and your spouse.

If you don’t already have one, this is also the time for a will or trust. In a lot of states, if you die without a will and have a spouse but no children, your spouse will inherit some of what you own, but your parents will also inherit. Avoid the risk of a fight between your spouse and parents over who should inherit, and have a will or trust definitively state who should receive your assets. Also, if you own a home, purchase life insurance that will pay off your mortgage if one spouse dies.

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Finally, change your beneficiary designations in terms of health insurance and investment plans so they pass to your spouse. A lot of people think when they get married, those things change on their own, but that’s not the case. Visit your human resources department and ask which documents include a beneficiary. Health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts sometimes have a beneficiary, as do bank accounts payable on death.

Contact Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Christopher Berry to ensure your estate plan is secure and in place.

Read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-life-stages-estate-planning-080013261.html

 

Attorney Christopher J. Berry is a Metro Detroit estate planning and elder law lawyer who helps families, seniors, veterans and business owners with their important legal needs. Oakland County estate planning lawyer, Christopher Berry is a partner in the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke Berry PLLC. Mr. Berry practices in the areas ofestate planning, business, probate, veterans benefits & Medicaid planning. Follow Christopher on Twitter@chrisberryesq.