Planning Resolutions for 2021

As we begin the New Year, have you resolved to create or update your Estate Plan? Here is what you should consider.

Newscaster: Even though we're about a month into 2021, you can start working on financial resolutions.

Lisa Malak: Attorney Justin Randall joins us from Hooper Law Office to help us get off on the right foot financially in the new year. Good morning.

Justin Randall: Good morning, guys. 

Lisa Malak: All right, let's talk about the first step we should take with our finances in 2021.

Justin Randall: The first step that we always recommend for our clients is really make sure everything is compiled in an easy to locate place, right? it's not just you who are going to need to be looking at these things at some point, it's also you know,your power of attorney agents.So, you want to get all of your records together where they can be found, and take a look at them and update them if need be. But also take a look and make  sure that you have all of your powers of attorney for finance and health in the same place as well so that the people who need them have access.  

Newscaster: Now Justin once we're organized with that stuff, what's the next step after that?

Justin Randall: The next step is usually to assess any changes that have occurred over the past year. And these can be financial changes, they can be changes to your life, like maybe the birth of a grandchild or a new child, things like that- marriage in the family. So, those types of changes are essential to look at, because those are things that you will want to incorporate in your estate planning documents. But, also take a look at your financial situation and see if that's changed. And after you assess all of that, it's always a good idea to meet with your professional team that we call it. So you'll have things like your financial advisors, your CPA, your accountants, and possibly your estate planning attorneys as well.

Lisa Malak: Okay, and once we do that, we also want to meet with your team, right? Why do we want to do that?

Justin Randall: When people come in and meet with us, we really take a look at their entire life situation, not just you know, hey, what's your financial situation like? Or what is your estate look like? But also, what's your family situation look like? And, and how do we incorporate your plan around that family situation. So, we keep up on all of the changes that have occurred in the law over the past year. Things like, you know, the secure act with retirement accounts, for example. And we update our documents constantly. So it's always a good idea every year to take another look at your plan. 

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