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Two fundamental pieces of an Estate Plan

Two fundamental pieces of an Estate Plan. A Trust or Will conveys assets upon death. A Power of Attorney names someone to help with your finance and health.

Durable Power of Attorney

Trust or Will:

Trust

  • Convey assets into Trust during your life
  • Provides mechanism and assets for you during life and during incapacity
  • Provides assets during life of surviving spouse
  • Distributes after life of both of you to your ultimate beneficiaries
  • Does all of this without need of probate

Will

  • state your wishes, such as, “I leave everything to my spouse; if my spouse should not survive me, then divided equally among my children”
  • Executor must probate your Will for it to be effective
  • probate is often a 6-month process, or longer, involving the court, attorneys, notice, publication, deadlines and various levels of court supervision

Again, there are two fundamental pieces of an Estate Plan. One is to convey your assets, and the other puts someone in place in case you need help handing your affairs.