The 3 Documents You Need For Estate Planning

Transcript:

I'm gonna talk about the three documents that you need in an estate plan. Estate planning is often neglected and can be easy to put off. My goal is to move estate planning to the top of your priority list, especially if you have children. It's important to recognize that you need one, and it's important to get it done. So I'm gonna go over the three documents that make up a solid estate plan. With these documents you can know that you have a plan in place in the event something were to happen to you.

Will

So, the first document in an estate plan is the will. This document answers three questions: Who inherits property, who administers your estate, and who takes care of your children. It covers the critical wishes with regards to what happens when you pass. What happens when other things occur? For instance, what happens if you lose capacity and are unable to make decisions about your property or unable to make healthcare decisions for yourself? The next documents, the power of attorney and a living will, apply while you're alive.

Power of Attorney

The power of attorney lets another person manage your personal, financial and healthcare matters. You can define them narrowly or broadly. You can also have them apply if you're incapacitated. An important part of the power of attorney is that you can designate somebody who can handle your healthcare matters in the event you can't. So, this person can get the medical information and make decisions on your behalf as an alternative to going to court and getting a guardianship, which can be a slow process. So, the power of attorney is a good way to designate a third party who can make medical decisions if you're unable.

Living Will

The last document is a living will. This document designates if you wish to die naturally or wish to have extraordinary life support measures in place. Ultimately, in this document you're making a decision, that decision is to have life support, to not have life support, or you can intentionally not make a decision and leave this decision up to the person you designate as your power of attorney, as I've just discussed. So these are the three documents you would need in a basic estate plan.

My name is Nathan Vining. I'm an attorney in Indianapolis and if you have questions about estate planning, give me a call or send me a text, I'd be happy to help.