Issue 2.12
Your New Year’s resolutions may include eating healthily, exercising, increasing your income, or learning a new skill. Your number one resolution should be to make your estate plan. There are very few things that are as simple to do, yet carry so many benefits for your loved ones and family.
Your estate plan keeps you in control of what happens to your property at your death. If you don’t decide who gets your property, the courts will. A carefully drafted estate plan keeps you in control of who gets your property and when. If you own a business, passing your business on to your family is a crucial part of your plan.
Your estate plan conserves as much as your property as possible for your family. It helps your family avoid court and probate costs if you become disabled and at your death. It can reduce and even eliminate the threat of inheritance taxes. You can also reduce the time and delays that can occur if your estate plan has not been prepared. Business owners can be sure that those delays will not impact their ongoing business operations and business relationships that need to be maintained.
You should provide enough liquid assets to pay your final expenses, burial costs, and inheritance taxes, if any are expected. If that liquidity is not there, your family may need to sell your assets to come up with the needed money, and sometimes at severe discounts. Savings and life insurance should be considered when you prepare your plan to be sure that cash is available.
You may also need to set up income funds for people who are dependent on you. Minor children and those who have health needs may need their inheritance from you managed by someone else for an extended period of time. Your estate plan should put the provisions in place that you want, not what someone else might want. You should take the opportunity to designate who will take care of your minor children or others who cannot take care of themselves in the event of your untimely death or disability.
Death and disability are no respecters of age. While you are making your resolutions this year, put your estate plan at the top of your list, do it, then check it off your list.
Sean Sullivan is a shareholder with the firm of Brindley Sullivan, PC, 382 S. Bluff St., Ste. 150, St. George, UT 84770, (435) 673-9220.