Why There Is No One-Size-Fits-All Estate Plan
Sometimes, what seems simple and easy can become anything but that. It’s not difficult to understand the attractiveness of online products that promise to help you address your need for an estate plan quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Unfortunately, estate planning is a situation where not only do you get what you pay for, your heirs either get or pay for what you paid for, both literally and figuratively.
When you leave the estate planning attorney out of your estate planning attorney, you sell yourself and your heirs short. Investing time and money in working with an estate planning attorney to create an estate plan that is tailored to address your specific needs will provide you with peace of mind during your lifetime. It will also provide your heirs with clear directions to follow when you pass away, as well as access to the resources you desire them to have.
You may feel as though your life is not all that different from the lives of other people you know, so it is easy to understand why you might consider getting an estate plan that is just like your neighbor’s or your co-worker’s. However, there are subtle differences between your life and theirs that could cause estate plans that look identical to produce completely different results, results that you might not necessarily want for your heirs. On the most basic level, no two individuals have the same collection of physical and financial assets. Also, while two people’s lives may appear to be quite similar, if you were to talk with each of them you might discover that their priorities are very different. Assets and priorities are two critical ingredients for estate planning. Since your assets and preferences are unique to you, you need an estate plan that is also unique to you.
Estate planning attorneys are skilled in creating estate plans that will accomplish the estate planning goals of their clients. For example, if your priorities are ensuring that your spouse and children will be able to remain in your family home if you pass away, your attorney can help you make an estate plan with that as its primary objective. Perhaps you have a child or sibling with a physical or mental health condition that will require specialized care throughout their lifetime, and you would like to provide financial resources to support that care. Your estate planning attorney can help you know what options you have for providing for their care in your estate plan. You may be a creator or a collector. If so, you may want an estate plan that provides for the preservation of your works or your collection after you pass away. As such, an estate planning attorney can help you identify estate planning goals and use estate planning tools that will honor who you are and what is important to you right now and when you pass away.
There is just no substitute for an estate plan that is created just for you by a seasoned estate planning attorney who can help you set estate planning goals and produce the documents that will accomplish them. Schedule a consultation with Wichita attorney J. Joseph Weber today, by calling our office or by contacting us through our website.