Five Key Estate Planning Documents
Saturday, July 25th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Avoiding the creation of an estate plan may be due to dismissal of subjects such as taxes, incapacity, and death. However, the fact still remains that you need to protect your wealth and your loved ones when you’re gone. So here are five documents that you need to have while you’re still active:
*Will - these are simple instructions to distribute your assets to the beneficiaries after death. You need to appoint an executor who will designate your assets, while you need to designate a guardian for minor children.
*Durable Power of Attorney (POA) - power of attorney is simply a legal document that will name another person who will act legally on your behalf. A regular POA terminates upon a person’s disability or death. However a durable POA will continue beyond disability and will only terminate upon death.
*Health Care POA - same as durable POA but it will authorize someone to decide for you in medical situations in case you’re unable to do so.
*Living Will - expresses your intentions for use of life-sustaining measures in a terminal illness.
*Revocable Living Trust - a type of trust that is often used in estate plans. When you transfer assets to a revocable trust, your beneficiaries will receive the income or principal according to the terms of the trust.
Creating an estate plan will not be an overwhelming task if you work with experienced professionals such as a CPA, financial advisor, and an attorney,
Tags: attorney, death, estate plan, legal, power of attorney, revocable living trust, wealth, will