Hey, it's Jeremy with Strength In Numbers again.
Where there's a will, there's a way,
and where there's not a will, there's often a family fight.
So, I'm going to show you the basics of estate planning,
so you can make sure you have in place what you need to protect your family.
(upbeat music)
I have some good news, and I have some bad news.
First the bad news, you're going to die.
Yep, unfortunately the mortality rate is still 100%.
It's undeniable, but the good news is,
you can still protect your family,
even after you've moved on.
So, we're going to talk today through basic estate planning,
and I'm going to talk through four key areas,
that you need to have in place to make sure that,
even though they'll be mourning your loss,
the financial aspect is a pain free process
when they get to that stage, so lets get into it.
The first thing we're going to talk about is a Will.
Now I know you've probably heard about a Will before,
but just hear me out.
It's commonly known as a Will,
but the real name is usually a Last Will and Testament.
That's the more legal name, so to speak.
Here's the thing, all estates exist.
You say, "well I don't have 5 million dollars."
It doesn't matter, you still have an estate.
It's just what you have in your possession.
Whether you have any assets, or any money or anything,
that's your estate, whether it's super small or super large.
It doesn't matter, we all have an estate,
and all estates go through Probate Court,
whether you have a Will or you don't.
What the Will does, is it dictates,
what should happen when it goes to Probate Court.
I don't want you thinking that it's like in the movies,
where you can just scrawl it down on a napkin,
and that that's going to work, no it's not going to work.
In almost every state it has to be state specific,
legal language to be a valid Will in your state.
You need to make sure that you're using the right language,
you're using an estate planning attorney,
to draft that up for you so that,
So that when they do need to probate that Will
it's not going to run into these big problems.
All the Will does is that it tells
the Court what to do with your stuff,
and if you have kids, what to do with your kids.
No Will? That means your kids are now wards of the state,
and that's how they enter foster care,
if both of you have passed away,
if this is a couple that had kids, versus a single.
Either way, you need to make sure
that you're protecting your family, and the biggest,
easy first step that you can do, is a Will.
The second thing that we're going to talk about
is a Living Will, often known as a Medical Directive,
and I've also heard it callously referred to before as a,
do I unplug or do I not unplug document.
You may have heard that before,
but that's not the term I would use,
but just in case you've heard that,
that's the same situation.
This is simply a document that says,
that if I find myself in a situation where I'm alive,
but I'm incapacitated, I'm in a coma,
I'm in a vegetative state or whatever,
I know, all these happy things I'm talking about today,
what do you do with me, what do I want you to do?
It's very important to have that,
because there's a legal issue there,
and I've seen many clients where sometimes
one sibling wants to do this, that was mom or dad's wishes,
and the other is fighting against it.
A Living Will settles it,
because it is determined ahead of time,
before mom and dad were in that state.
They've already said, "This is what I want you to do."
It's very important to have that Living Will in place,
and that's the second document you should have prepared.
The third kind of document that you want to have in place,
is the Power of Attorney.
Not just any Power of Attorney,
but a Durable Power of Attorney.
What this does is that it gives over
financial control to someone you trust,
in the event that your health is declining,
and you're anticipating you might lose your
mental capacities if there's signs of dementia early on,
or Alzheimer's and things like that,
especially those types of things.
Once you are not able to make those decisions for yourself,
you can no longer sign that Power of Attorney.
The Court will not recognize it,
because you're not in sound mind at that point.
You need to be of sound mind when
you sign the Durable Power of Attorney.
In most cases with all three of these documents,
the spouses are making mirrored documents if you're married,
to make each other the guardian of the children of course,
if the other one should pass away,
and to make each other the Durable Power of Attorney
and things like that, but you should still
have a back-up person in mind as well of course,
in case, God forbid there was a car accident,
and you both passed on at the same time.
So again, fun stuff to talk about I know,
but it's very important stuff,
get that Durable Power of Attorney in place.
The fourth thing that you need to have in place,
is actually not a document, it's communication.
It's very, very, very important that there's
good regular communication on these matters,
and there's no surprises when God forbid you move on,
and they open the Will and they go, "What?"
There needs to be communication about this stuff,
and so if you are the child of someone,
and you don't know what going on with your parent's Will,
sit down and have a conversation with your parents.
If you're the parent, you need to be
communicating to your kids and siblings,
and all these other people that may be involved.
You need to be sitting down having those conversations.
I recommend you have that conversation on a yearly basis.
Sit down once a year, have a reading of the Will.
Anything that needs to be updated and modified,
and things like that, make sure everybody understands;
this is what happens when I pass,
here's where all the documents are,
here's who the attorney is, all that basic stuff.
It doesn't have to be a very long meeting,
but there can be no issue of someone going, "I didn't know."
That's what causes the fights,
and what causes the problems,
is this miscommunication or lack of communication.
So just as important as all these
other documents is communication.
Make sure you have regular, clear communication
about how you want your estate handled when you do pass on.
Well, I hope this has been a helpful video for you.
I know it's not the cheeriest of topics,
but it's very important,
and most people do not have this in place.
In fact, even if you don't have dependents,
many people think that you don't need a Will,
but if you're of 18 years of age or more,
you should have a Will in place.
So, I really hope that you apply these things in your life.
Now on a lighter note, make sure you grab
my free E-book, The Money Finder.
It will help you in every day topics
that you can save on right now,
and join my free Facebook group,
the Strong Together Money Community.
I'd love to have you there as part of the conversation,
where you can continue to learn and continue to grow.
This has been Jeremy with Strength In Numbers,
helping you keep your wallet heavy and your heart light.
(upbeat music)
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