You’ve finally stopped kicking the proverbial can down the road. You’re ready to cross that item off your “to-do” list that you and your spouse have talked about ever since your kids were born. You’re about to consult with an estate planning attorney.
At Bulman Dunie, we commonly tell our estate planning clients that the advice that we can give is only as good as the information we receive.
Here are 5 tips for things you can do to organize your information and make sure you are prepared for your estate planning consultation:
- Complete the intake questionnaire carefully. An estate planning intake questionnaire likely asks for a lot of information. Biographical information about you and your family. Information about assets. All of that information is there for a reason that will become apparent during your consultation.
- Start thinking about the difficult decisions. These are decisions that you’d like to avoid. But if you and your spouse should both pass away, who do you trust to raise your children as their guardian? Is this a family member? It doesn’t have to be. Who do you trust with control of the money you leave behind for your children?
- What do you have and how is it titled? You know you own a home with your spouse. Is it titled as “tenants by the entireties” or “tenants in common”? If you are in Maryland or DC, a free and quick land records search will solve this. In short, if you and your spouse were both to pass away, try to capture in your mind the entire family nest egg that would pass—insurance payouts, equity in a home, balance of retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, etc.
- Who are the designated beneficiaries of these assets? Equally important to how assets are titled is to explore whether your insurance policies, brokerage accounts, and retirement accounts have designated beneficiaries. You likely designated a beneficiary when you created this asset. Who did you designate? A call to the broker can quickly sort this out.
- Don’t be nervous! It is your estate planning attorney’s job to explain the choices that are before you in simple, easy-to-understand language. You may have to make difficult decisions, but at least you should understand what you are deciding. And if your attorney can’t speak to you in simple, easy-to-understand language, it’s time to find a new estate planning attorney.
Don’t worry about tackling each and every one of these tips to perfection prior to your consultation. However, the more that you can do before your consultation, the more productive of a consultation you will have.
When you’re ready to talk estate planning, please contact Jeremy Rachlin or Jared Sands at (301) 656-1177. Or feel free to e-mail Jeremy at jrachlin@bulmandunie.com or Jared at jsands@bulmandunie.com
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