Creating a last will and testament is part of planning for the future. Leaving a legacy is another. Both are part of an estate plan, which addresses planning for incapacity during your lifetime and the disposition of your property after you’ve passed. A comprehensive estate plan is a worthy endeavor, says a recent article from North Shore News, “How to secure your legacy with estate planning.”

The core components of an estate plan include a last will, power of attorney and advance directives for health care decisions, sometimes called health care power of attorney or health care proxy. Your family will face additional stress and expenses if you don’t have a last will. Your wishes for the disposition of property won’t be honored, unless you proactively have an estate plan created.

Will charitable giving be part of your legacy? This also requires advance planning. When you make donations to individual charities or use Donor Advised Funds, you create a legacy of giving and may also create tax benefits. An experienced estate planning attorney will help create a plan to maximize the tax advantages of charitable gifting.

Estate planning is especially important for women, who statistically live longer than men and tend to have lower earning power. Women need to consider who will be their caregivers if their partners predecease them or if they are solo agers.

Discussing family dynamics with an estate planning attorney can help ensure that the estate plan is created to address individual needs. Estate planning is never a one-size-fits-all plan.

Estate planning also requires regular reviews. One estate planning attorney advises her clients to revisit their estate plans every time there’s a presidential election. It’s an easy way to remember the passing of four years, which is a good time to review an estate plan.

A carefully crafted and regularly updated estate plan addresses changes to your life and the laws governing wills, trusts and retirement accounts. The SECURE Act made major changes to how assets in retirement accounts are distributed to heirs, for instance. The addition of Roth IRA and SEP accounts created huge changes in the passing of assets to the next generation.

Your estate planning attorney will give you and your family the peace of mind of knowing you’re prepared for the future, including the unexpected events, happy and sad, that life brings.

Reference: North Shore News (October, 2024) “How to secure your legacy with estate planning”