Young People Can Afford to Procrastinate Some Parts of Their Estate Plans, but Not Others

It is the middle of the night, and you are painfully aware that, one day, you will die.  While you are still a youngster compared to the seniors smiling for their close ups on estate planning law websites, you are mature enough to realize that scrolling through social media or trying in vain to find something entertaining to watch on Netflix is only going to make you feel exponentially worse.  The only thing to do is to get out of bed, fire up your computer, and write a will.  By the time you have typed everything out, you feel ready to go back to sleep.  You have said the most important things, and everything else can wait.  In the morning, you can go back to working, parenting, and all the other things that people your age do.  A Bronx estate planning lawyer can help you formalize your estate plan, no matter how young you are.

Estate Planning Tasks to Do Before Your Next Birthday

When you are retired, and your health and wealth are abundant, you have time to craft an estate plan down to the last detail.  Death no longer seems as scary as it did when your boss was counting on you to do one herculean task after another and you were your children’s whole world.  When you are old, estate planning is about making other people’s wishes come true now that yours have.

Estate planning for people under 50 should focus on the worst-case scenario.  No one says, “He lived a long, full life” at the funeral of a 49-year-old.  If you are younger than 50, you really only need a will that states your wishes about the final disposition of your remains and about who should have custody of your children if both you and your spouse die while your children are minors.  You should also draft a power of attorney and an advance directive.  These documents authorize a family member (or anyone else you choose) to make decisions about your finances and healthcare, respectively, in the event that you become seriously ill.

Estate Planning Tasks That Can Wait Until You’re Older

If your first communications from the AARP have yet to arrive, then which of your assets go through probate and which ones don’t is the last thing in the world that your widowed spouse and orphaned children care about.  When you are older, though, you have time to think about revocable trusts, transfer on death accounts, and the like.  More importantly, though, the worst-case scenario is no longer dying young (that ship has sailed), but rather requiring costly residential care.  If you are over 50 and you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about your estate plan, you should buy long-term care insurance or hybrid life insurance.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney

An estate planning lawyer can help you focus on the parts of your estate plan that cannot wait until you are older.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/advancedirectives.pdf