Are you or your children thinking about getting married? Think about your estate planning basics too.
It’s February here in South Dakota and many of you or your children are probably thinking about weddings. For all the bad jokes planning a wedding can be a lot of fun, dreaming about the cakes the reception the special gifts and in particular the romantic honeymoons. This is really a great time for everyone but for the newlyweds once were making that commitment – for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, there are some other very important decisions to consider.
Newlyweds need to plan for the unexpected.
Here you are getting married and dying is probably the last thing on your mind. But everyone – young or old married or single – needs to protect themselves and the ones they love.
The tragedy is many young couples spend more time planning their honeymoons than they do planning on how to protect one another and their children as well as their family and their wealth.
With no estate plan in place:
- Your spouse and the rest of your family can be in the dark – they won’t know what you want to happen you are incapacitated or worse if you die. Imagine the stress and tension that can come about if your newlywed spouse is called upon to make life-and-death decisions with no clear declarations from you and all of the pressure that will come from the “in-laws”.
- Think of the burden on your spouse if they have to make tough decisions about medical heroics were even worse the withdrawal of life support.
- Who would make healthcare decisions if you are unable to? A judge in a black robe or somebody reading a state statute book.
- The judge, not you will decide who will raise your children.
- A newlyweds assets can get tied down by the court and you may have to get court permission to make any financial move.
- Without a thoughtful estate plan any assets that you do have or leave the loved ones could be taken by their divorcing spouses, bankruptcy creditors, medical crises creditors, predators and frivolous lawsuits.
- You could accidentally disinherit your spouse or your children.
- Your pet could go to the Humane Society or worse simply euthanized.
What you should do?
Call or email my office today. I will take some time to get to know you and we can talk about your plans and you can learn about how to protect each other and those you love; how to protect your beloved pets; and how to protect your assets and make things easier for you and your families. Call or email anytime for complementary consultation about your estate planning needs.