by Mei Ling Lin
When asked about estate planning, many young people respond, “Why do I need to worry about estate planning when I am still so young?” They think that estate planning is for elderly people only who are in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. However, there are a few young people who may need estate planning because it helps you to reduce estate taxes, avoid mess, protect beneficiaries, probating, and the most important reason is that it protect your assets from unforeseen creditors.
After you decide to have estate planning, there are five steps within the estate planning process that you must follow. First, you need to determine what you need for an estate plan based on your current family situation and financial status. Second, you need to have a qualified estate planning attorney because you need a professional person to help you to ensure that all the documents you will sign are legal and that there are no missing documents or signatures. Third, you have to build your foundational estate plan. Fourth, you need to assess whether you need advance estate planning. Finally, the fifth step is to maintain and update your estate plan. Now you may ask, “Why do I need to update my estate plan?”
Even if you have finalized your estate plan, you still need to update your estate plan periodically. This is because your family situation or financial status may change after you have made your estate plan. You may need to change the heirs in your estate plan if you remarry or divorce or you may become extremely rich due to an inheritance that just came through. In addition, when you move to another state, you need to find an attorney that knows about the rules of estate planning for that state that you will be living in because different states have different regulations on estate planning. Thus, you need to make sure that your estate plan is valid and complete under the state regulations of the state that you just relocated to.
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