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Estate planning for beginners: The first steps

On Behalf of | Oct 3, 2019 | Estate Planning |

When you’re trying to decide how to approach creating an estate plan, it may seem overwhelming. After all, there are several things that you may want to include in your estate plan and dozens of factors that influence your choices.

Try not to be too overwhelmed. The truth is that your attorney’s job is to guide you, and they can help you decide what is most important to you right now and what to tackle first.

What are some of the first steps to creating an estate plan?

To get started, the first thing most people do is to create a will. A will should discuss your wishes if you are unable to care for yourself or pass away suddenly.

To create a will, you may need to take an inventory of what you own and owe first. This will help you better understand what you have to will to your dependents and the creditors that you may need to satisfy upon death. The will should also address what happens if you become mentally incapacitated.

After you create a will, it may be a good idea to set up your two main helpers, the executor and the health care agent. Your executor will be in charge of finances and the estate, while the health care Power of Attorney (or agent) is in control of your medical care if you can’t make decisions for yourself.

Your attorney will talk to you more about what comes next in a solid estate plan. These are just two ideas of documents you can include right away.

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