Ages and Stages of Estate Planning

When should you worry about getting your Estate Plan ready?

Surprisingly there are quite a few times in your life when it is important to make an Estate Plan as well as to update it. Some examples of those times are getting married, having children, and retirement.

Let's begin with getting married! Marriage is a time in your life where you begin to include your spouse in everything you do. In an Estate Plan this means your spouse will most likely become your Power of Attorney for your finances as well as your healthcare. Your spouse will also assume responsibility over any property you own and benefits you have. This can be very important if you die and leave financial obligations for your spouse.

Next, when you decide to have children an Estate Plan is important to ensure you have documentation stating who you assign to be a permanent guardian for those children. At Swan Law we will give you all the documentation you need to assign temporary guardians, travel guardians, permanent guardians, healthcare power of attorney's and much more. This is all included in our Kids Safety System that comes in any plan for a family with children. An Estate Plan is very important to ensure the person who you want to care for your child has the ability and access to what they need in order to do that.

Another time in your life where an Estate Plan or an update is important is if you get divorced. A divorce is a time where you may be removing someone from your bank accounts and beneficiaries, so it is important to also remove them from any legal obligations you no longer want them to have. This is easy to do at Swan Law if you already have a plan with us, we suggest you do updates every three years anyway!

Finally, retirement is a great time to make a plan or update it. As you are getting older you may need to change who is in your plan as your Power of Attorney. Perhaps when you made a plan as a younger couple you did not include your children. Retirement is a great time to add in your now adult children to become Power of Attorney for your healthcare or finances if that is what you want.

At Swan Law we can help you make the right type of plan for whatever life events you are experiencing. We love to help people make a plan that gives them peace of mind. If you have questions or want more information about the plan we would cater for your needs call or email Kate. kate@swanlawoffice.com 970.879.1572