How Can Estate Planning be an Act of Love?

Estate Planning is easy to put off, but it's one of the most loving things you can do for your family and loved ones. By taking the time to properly plan your Estate, you can avoid potential conflicts among loved ones, alleviate stress in their time of grief, and ensure that your property transfers to the individuals you choose. Watch this quick clip from a Local5Live appearance with Hooper Law Office Attorney Justin Randall.

Lisa Malak
Well, fresh off the heels of Valentine's Day. Show your love by planning for the future. Attorney Justin Randall is here from Hoover Law Office. Good morning.

Justin Randall
Good morning.

Lisa Malak
Okay. How do we mean? Show love with estate planning? is that an act of love?

Justin Randall
Yeah. So there's really two main things that you can do to show your love for family members while doing estate planning. And the first act of love is really having the right conversations with people. You want to make sure that you let people know what your wishes are, especially when it's related to like health care or end of life wishes.

Justin Randall
But also make sure you're talking to people and asking them if you're thinking of putting them in particular roles, like, let's say, a power of attorney, a trustee of a trust, or the personal representative of your state. After you pass, make sure you talk to those individuals and make sure that they're a good fit and that they're willing to do it.

Lisa Malak
So talking about it is one what is the other way we can show our love.

Justin Randall
So the other way is actually getting the documents in place, talking only go so far. So it's important to actually sit down and and talk about creating these documents and get them in place. So it's good to have powers of attorney for finance and health care so that you have somebody who can step in for you while you're alive if there's an incapacity or if you just need somebody to help.

Justin Randall
And then when you're talking about planning after someone would pass away, you want to make sure that you have your will in place, your trust in place, depending on what your estate planning goals are. And then even things like a marital property agreement can help avoid probate on the first death for a surviving spouse.

Lisa Malak
Sometimes you can find these things online, but why is it important to have a qualified attorney be looking over everything you do?

Justin Randall
We always joke that it's not so much just the drafting of the documents. That is our job because like you said, people can find foreign powers of attorney online. But where our value really comes in is sitting down and designing the plan with them, talking about things that they might not think to look at themselves, or that some of these online tools just don't ask or can't give advice on.

Justin Randall
But we also have a lot of value after the client is gone, working with the family and making sure that the estate is handled effectively and that we take that stress off of them when they're already going through a really tough time.

Lisa Malak
Well, speaking of then, let's talk about the importance of having an estate plan in place. You know, I mean, it is an act of love now, but later as well.

Justin Randall
Yeah. And and part of that is to make sure that you're making sure that things get to people in the right way. So not everybody has the perfect life where they're perfectly healthy all the time or they don't have other liability concerns. And so if you have somebody with special concerns in your life that you want to still leave things to and protect those things that you're leaving for them, it's really important to coordinate that with your estate plan and put that language into the document.

Learn More: Attend a Complimentary Online Seminar