How to Obtain the Basic Documents You Need for Estate Planning
Practically every person can benefit from a health care proxy, a durable power of attorney and a will. Regardless of your occupation, income or age, every adult should have these estate planning documents and these should be updated at least on an annual basis in order ensure that you have appropriate protections and have guarded against the possibility of your loved ones of having to make difficult situations during an emergency.
The best way to obtain these documents is through the help of an experienced estate planning attorney who practices in your state. During an initial consultation in your in-person meeting, your lawyer will learn about your overall goals and your individual situation and can offer recommendations that go beyond the basic documents listed above.
Personalized advice can help you to realize ways in which you might be exposed to unnecessary risks and how a knowledgeable attorney can help you accomplish your goals as effectively as possible. Although there are online options for drafting these documents, these are not as reliable as working directly with a lawyer. This is because these fill in the blank documents might not be compliant with your state laws and your loved ones might not discover this until you have passed away and left them behind to deal with the consequences.
Little words can make a big difference when it comes to your will and other estate planning tools, but without an attorney who has been practicing in this field for some time and who has seen many different obstacles and challenges for clients during that period, you could choose an online template that appears to work but does not truly line up with what you hope to accomplish.
Sadly, most people don’t even realize that these online tools and fill-in-the-blank templates aren’t what they were looking for.
Until you sit down with an attorney, you might not even know that you’re overlooking some of the biggest issues in your estate planning. An attorney can point out areas where you are exposed so that you can generate strategies to protect yourself.
