Where Should I Store My Estate Plan? (Video)

The best made plans are useless if nobody can find them.

Quite often people are surprised that we give them their plan in a notebook and it is quite full.

Here are a few suggestions for storing your plan:

• Rent a drawer at the bank.  Make sure the important people in your plan have access to the safety deposit drawer.
• Buy a small fire proof safe or gun safe to keep it in.
• Buy a fireproof box big enough for the plan
• Keep it on the shelf

No matter what option you use, the important people playing parts in your plan need to know where it is or know where to get instructions as to where it is.

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How is Estate Planning Like a Storm?

What does estate planning have in common with a storm?

Here is what estate planning has in common with a storm.

Its all about how much time you get to prepare for the mess.

Take a snowstorm for instance.  The weather person starts predicting it a week out. Then as it gets closer, the weather person starts giving more details.  You have time to prepare.

When you know a snowstorm is coming, you can prepare.  You usually have days of warning about it. You make sure you have your supplies stocked up, that your flashlights work, you have wood for the fireplace, salt for the driveway, and more.

But tornadoes are different. You don’t usually get enough warning to do much preparation. The sirens go off and you head to your safe area.

Estate planning is more like being prepared for a tornado. You don’t have time when the storm is coming to go to the store and stock up.  You need be prepared ahead of time and just grab what you need and go. You need to have a safe room or safe area designated before the storm hits. Your safe area should be pre-stocked with what you need.

Just like with a tornado, events in your life rarely give a much warning before they happen. You need to be prepared ahead of time so that your family can just grab and go.  You need to know who will be in charge if you can’t be.  You need to keep your family out of probate court because court is stressful and expensive.

If you knew when major events in your life would happen, you would keep putting off preparation until just about time.

Get prepared. Be prepared. Spare your family from the need to clean up after the storms of life.

Come in and talk to us to see what it takes to be prepared for the storms in your life.

Click here to setup your meeting time. If you prefer, call 479-717-6300 to schedule.

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When Should I Plan? (Video)

Joe thought he had plenty of time to plan. But one night he swerved to miss a car in his lane and left the road.  Now his family faces probate.

Gary was a 40-year-old fairly health guy.  Never thought about planning.  However, one day on his way to work his chest started hurting and his left hand went tingly and numb. 

Gary didn’t expect to have heart troubles.  Nor did he expect to stay in the hospital for three days.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a heart attack.  It was a serious condition, but not a heart attack.

But, if it had been serious, Gary would have benefited from having the proper powers of attorney in place so that his family wouldn’t be burdened going to court to get a guardianship.

In my opinion, if you don’t have a plan, you need to start right away.

None of us can truly predict the future.  We plan for all sorts of things that might happen and should happen.  Like retirement.  But we may never see that day.  However, that doesn’t mean we didn’t plan for it.

I can say with 100% certainty, you will need an estate plan.  And if you don’t write it, one has been written for you by the government. One that takes control out of your hands and out of your family’s hands.

Estate planning is for anybody that wants to stay in control, not lose their freedom to choose, and want their family to have the easiest time possible during difficult times.

All this to say, you should start planning as soon as possible because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring for you.

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Who Needs an Estate Plan? (Video)

My daughter was off at working at a summer camp and trying to get enrolled at the  university.  The university kept sending paperwork for her to sign.  Because she had signed a power of attorney, we were able to sign for her and keep the process moving along. 

In our last episode, we talked about what estate planning is. In summary, estate planning is about you maintaining control, or at least deciding who is in control of your stuff now and later.  You decide who is in control and control who gets what, when, and how much.

Anybody over 18 should have at least a minimal plan.

So, who needs a plan?  Anybody that doesn’t want to give up control.  Anybody that wants to know who will make their decisions if they can’t.  Anybody that wants to decide who gets what, when, how, and how much.  Because if you don’t make those choices now, you will lose control and the state will take over making those choices.  The state will be in control.

Think of planning like insurance.  It is your insurance policy against losing control.  Losing control of your choices and who gets your stuff.

If you are over 18 years old, you need an estate plan.  You need a plan because you don’t know when an accident, heart attack, stroke, dementia, medical incident, or something else will happen and you’ll wish you had a plan in place.  Once something happens, planning is probably the last thing you’ll be thinking about.

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What is Estate Planning and Why is it Important? (Video)

Mark failed to plan and it cost his family time, money, and anguish during his decline and after he was gone.  He didn’t realize that his wife didn’t have the power to make decisions for him without going to court and that she didn’t just automatically get it all.

A short summary of the definitions is estate planning is arranging for the management and distribution of your stuff

1. During your lifetime if you can’t manage it yourself
2. After your lifetime

If you dig down to the core of the definition, it is about control and freedom to choose.  You get to decide now, while you can, who will be in control if you can’t be. You get to control who gets your stuff, when, how much, and how. 

With control, you can protect yourself and your family.  Without control, you have decided the state knows what is best for you and your family.

With a plan, you maintain your freedom to choose who will be in charge if you can’t be.  You keep your freedom to choose who gets your stuff, when, how, and how much.  If you don’t have a plan, then you are giving up your freedom to choose and are giving control of decisions to the state government.

Another way to look at estate planning is insurance. Just like you have insurance for your home and auto, shouldn’t you have insurance for your future.  Insurance that protects your freedom of choice and control.

If you don’t make these decisions now in a plan, then who do you think can make them?

If you didn’t answer the state under a judge’s supervision, then you are probably wrong.

When somebody can’t make sound, rational decisions, and there isn’t a power of attorney in place, then the family must go to court and get the authority to make the decisions and to sign paperwork. And, that is why planning is important.  If you don’t plan, then the state steps in to tell your family what decisions they can make and a judge gets to supervise it all. 

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