Estate Planning 101

As an Arizona resident trying to figure out the best way to preserve your wealth for your loved ones down the line, you may be exploring your options and trying to determine how to maximize what you leave behind. While a traditional will is one way to leave something behind for your loved ones, there are typically other options at your disposal, and one such option involves establishing a trust.

Trusts are fiduciary arrangements that allow you to leave assets behind to beneficiaries in a format that can result in considerable savings for them after your passing. Though trusts may prove a bit more complicated to create than a standard will, they offer several benefits that can mean your loved ones get to keep more of your hard-earned legacy for themselves. While trusts come in an array of different formats, there are certain advantages that most trusts offer that make them particularly appealing to many people. More specifically, trusts allow you to:

If you have already created your will and feel your estate plans are solid, you might be sadly mistaken. While your family should be grieving and coming to terms with your passing, they might end up fighting amongst themselves over the contents of your will. 

It is not uncommon for disputes to happen when sibling rivalry and other issues arise that cause everyone to want what you have left behind for someone else. Before you put your will and estate planning documents aside, consider the following pointers to help prevent disputes over them: 

After you pass away, your physical presence is missed by your loved ones who are left mourning your loss. Often they will spend time looking at your old photos to remember you or see an item of yours they inherited and think of you fondly. But what happens to your digital presence after you die? How does that factor into the way you are remembered?

Social media is a ubiquitous part of many of our lives, regardless of age. For a number of us, it is the new photo album that used to sit on the coffee table or the journal where we wrote with our thoughts and witticisms. Those things are precious to the people we leave behind. Luckily, for most major social media platforms, not all is lost upon our death.

When planning for the future, there are many different scenarios to consider. One important piece of any estate plan is your wishes if you were to become incapacitated or unable to make decisions for yourself any longer. Your will can state your wishes on some of these matters, but you can also appoint a guardian to make medical or financial decisions for you.