Your Primary Estate Planning Checklist Components
The purpose of this article is to explain what kind of estate planning checklist you need to have before you meet with me or another estate planning attorney.
Three important three keys you need to have prepared:
- You need to be prepared to talk about your family and people in your life;
- You need to know what you have in terms of assets; and
- You need to know your estate planning goals.
So, who are the important people in planning your estate?
Of course it’s going to be you. It could be your spouse or significant other (don’t have to be married); they’re a key player. Next, you’re thinking about your children:
- You children can be the kids that you talk to daily (of course!);
- Estranged children who you haven’t seen in 30 years need to be discussed… kids can be illegitimate children;
- Former stepchildren of a deceased spouse;
- All the kids need to be identified, just by name at minimum if you’re out of touch. You also need to know other players in your life and your family.
If you’re younger, you need to name distant relatives, just your parents, of course, so we know whom your parents are. But those are the main people you need to have identified, and maybe even their last known address available.
Key players that might have any gripes about your estate: ex-wives, former spouses, estranged children. Those people need to be identified and discussed with your attorney.
That should be the first part of your estate planning checklist.
Next, you need to get a handle on your assets.
The conversation with your estate planning attorney will revolve around your assets and what will happen to them if you become incapacitated or if you pass away. So, you need to get a handle on where your accounts are:
- Banks, specific financial institutions, and insurance companies; and
- What type of investments are they? Annuities, real estate investment trust, raw land, time shares, yachts: those are assets. Condos, rental property, any kind of financial asset that you might have, gold, those types of things you need to have a handle on.
- You just need to come up with a general value and how the statements come in, how the assets are titled.
So that’s what you need to have a firm grasp on before you meet with an estate-planning attorney.
The last part of your estate planning checklist should cover your goals.
What do you want to accomplish in your estate plan?
What brings you to do estate planning?
Do you have any particular goals relating to your family? Your children, when they get the money – when they don’t get the money.
If there’s anything left, do you have any specific goals regarding yourself?
- Are you in a second marriage?
- Do you want to protect your assets from a nursing home?
- Do you want to protect your assets from a creditor?
- Do you want to do estate planning for your business? Do you want to make sure your kids don’t squander your assets if you were to pass away and they were to inherit?
If you need help gathering information to determine and better define your goals, then continue your search on this site or purchase a book on estate planning. Most estate planning attorneys offer seminars and workshops to help define your goals; I recommend you inquire at each attorney’s office when you’re on your search.
These are the three main points, a part of your estate-planning checklist. These three points are the primary discussions on your first appointment with an attorney in addition to whatever information the estate planning attorney’s assistant provides or offers to you before your first meeting.