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Why You Need to Discuss Your Estate Plan and Power Of Attorney with Your Loved Ones

Why You Need to Discuss Your Estate Plan and Power Of Attorney with Your Loved Ones

  • October 5, 2022

Attorney Justin Randall appeared on Local 5 Live to discuss why you should discuss your Estate Plans with your loved ones.

Millaine Wells: Family Estate Planning can be stressful, but we have some help today.

Lisa Malak: Yeah. Attorney Justin Randall is here from Hooper Law Office. Good morning.

Justin Randall: Good morning.

Lisa Malak: Okay, so why is putting an Estate Plan so important for a person's loved ones and children, even though it can be stressful? It's important to do.

Justin Randall: Yeah, and it can be stressful because it often brings up things that people don't want to necessarily think about. But it is important to have that in place because it just makes things a lot easier for somebody if you're incapacitated. You know, it makes it easier for them to step in and take care of things for you after you pass away. Having that plan in place is really important to make things go smoothly and more importantly, according to your own wishes as well.

Millaine Wells: So what types of things can happen if we don't have the plan in place?

Justin Randall: Yeah. So, you know, without a plan in place, things, no pun intended, don't really go according to plan. They often don't follow the path that people would think they want. You know, maybe things don't get divided the way they would want or somebody has, uh, an unforeseen circumstance that comes up that them inheriting that money causes them problems. And there's no plan in place to deal with that. So having a plan in place provides just more flexibility.

Lisa Malak: How would you suggest we talk to family members about it and maybe when- as soon as possible? Right?

Justin Randall: Yeah. It's never too late. I would always suggest bringing it up first just by asking what they do have in place. That often prompts the answer of I have nothing in place or I have things in place. But it's been a while since I've had them looked at. So that can really start that that topic rolling, maybe bring someone in to get things updated and then if things aren't in place, it's like you said, it's never too late to get started.

Millaine Wells: And without a plan in place, we can end up in situations where it takes months to settle in a state and for families who are grieving, that's kind of a headache they don't need on top of that.

Justin Randall: Absolutely. I mean, even a well put together plan, it still takes time. But when there's not things in place ahead of time, not planned, things just go not according to plan, and they can take even longer sometimes, you know, more than a year and a half.

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