Why Basic Estate Planning is so Important!

A Reminder to All for National Estate Planning Month…

With October being national estate planning awareness month, this is as good a time as any to reflect on why estate planning is so important. It is part of being a responsible adult and showing that we care about our family and other loved ones. We do it to make things easier for our loved ones if and when unfortunate events occur. We don’t like to talk about or even think about these issues, but life happens. Let’s take a few minutes to talk about what happens when you don’t have any estate plan in place.

If you become physically or mentally incapacitated to such an extent that you can no longer manage your financial or legal affairs, what do you do? Who can pay your bills? Who can execute legal documents? Without proper estate planning  well in advance, a loved one would have to petition the probate court to be appointed a guardian over you.

Here in Ohio that would involve guardianship training, continuing guardianship education, a background check, acquiring a financial bond from a bonding company, filing yearly guardianship accounts  and guardianship plans and getting the court’s prior approval before spending any of your money. All of this can be avoided with a general power of attorney.

Does My Spouse Have Legal Rights to Make Decisions?

What if you get sick? Who can make medical decisions for you? Who can request medical information from the health care providers? Without proper estate planning well in advance, no one can.

Contrary to popular belief, being married does not give a spouse any legal rights to make any decisions for the other spouse. If you want your spouse, children or other loved ones to be able to speak on your behalf if you cannot, you need the proper health care estate planning documents. How do you feel about life support decision? What about DNR orders? Do you want feeding tubes to keep you alive? Do you want your children to have to make these decisions for you? These issues can all be addressed with proper estate planning

What happens when you die? Proper estate planning is critical in this area. You want your assets distributed to whom you want to leave them to in the most efficient manner possible.

Without Basic Estate Planning Documents, the State of Ohio Will Dictate Distribution of your Assets

Without any estate planning documents, you cannot control how your assets are distributed. If minors are involved, without estate planning, guardianships will be required whereas they otherwise could have been avoided. Without a will, an administrator has to be appointed (as opposed to an executor named in a will) and prior court approval is needed at almost every step of the way in administering the estate. If real estate is involved, a land sale may be necessary.

The state of Ohio will dictate who inherits, and everything will be distributed outright upon your death whether that is your preference or not. With proper estate planning, you can dictate who gets what, when and in the most efficient manner possible.

This is just a general overview of the importance of estate planning. I have not even discussed titling issues, various trusts, Medicaid planning, etc. The bottom line is that this is such an important issue and so many Americans have no estate planning documents in place. If you are one of those many Americans, this month is a great time to remedy that and get an estate plan in place.

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At Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues, located in Dayton, Ohio, top-notch estate planning doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive! To learn more, go to our website at www.hcmmlaw.com. Or, please contact us at (937) 293-2141 to schedule an appointment for an initial consultation which can be conducted either by phone, Zoom or in person.

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