When is a it the right time to start putting together an estate plan? If you are asking yourself that question the answer is yesterday. Estate planning should not be a taboo or scary subject to an individual or a family thinking about the future. An estate plan should be created to give you piece of mind. However not all estate plans are equal.
For many people the word “Trust” sounds like what they need to do. Without considering goals or other options they run to their attorney and ask for a trust. The attorneys who oblige them are doing them a disservice. A trust is a great estate planning vehicle but it will not accomplish anything if it is not part of an estate plan that takes into account what your estate planning goals.
Most trusts cannot even be explained by the attorney that drafted it and even more often these trusts are not even funded with assets that were meant to be placed in trust. If your attorney did not explain the trust property or the basic terms of the trust how do you know it is accomplishing your estate planning goals. When going to your attorney it should be more about you trusting your attorney to get the information out of you to use his or her expertise to accomplish your estate planning goals.
At Green & Green this is the approach we take. Identify your estate planning goals. Determine what assets you have and then we create a plan for you that accomplishes these goals. If we cannot explain it to you then we are not doing our job. Estate planning should give you piece of mind not confusion.
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