Estate planning is the systematic approach to organizing your personal and financial affairs in order to deal with the possibility of mental incapacity and certain death. Depending on your current family and financial situation, your foundational estate plan will include four or five essential legal estate planning documents. Your estate planning attorney will be able to assist you with preparing all of the estate planning documents that you will need for your situation.

Will-Based Estate Planning

If your current family and financial situations do not warrant the need for a Revocable Living Trust, then your foundational estate plan will include the following four important legal documents:

1. Last Will and Testament
2. Advance Medical Directive (Health Care Proxy)
3. Financial Power of Attorney

Here is a summary of the purpose of each essential estate planning document listed above:

Last Will and Testament

If you have a will-based estate plan, then your Last Will and Testament will contain a detailed list of instructions as to how your property should be distributed after you die. If you have minor children, it will also contain provisions for designating a guardian for your children.

If you have a trust-based estate plan, then your Last Will and Testament will only be used as a safety net to catch assets that you did not transfer into instructions since your Revocable Trust is the main document governing your estate plan.

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Revocable Living Trust

A Revocable Living Trust contains a detailed set of instructions covering three important periods of your life:

What happens while you are alive and well;
What happens if you become mentally incapacitated; and
What happens after your death.
In addition, assets held in the name of your Revocable Living Trust at the time of your death will avoid probate.

Advance Medical Directive

An Advance Medical Directive, also called a Health Care Proxy, allows you to designate a health care agent to make medical decisions for you if, for any reason, you are unable to make them for yourself. It can also be used to designate someone to serve as your guardian or conservator in the event a court determines that you have become mentally incapacitated. A Health Care Proxy also contains a written set of instructions to our physician as to whether or not you want to receive life-sustaining procedures if you have been diagnosed with a terminal condition, end stage condition, or are in a persistent vegetative state. It also gives guidelines for your family members to follow if you become terminally ill.

Financial Power of Attorney

A Financial Power of Attorney allows you to delegate to the person of your choice the ability to manage assets that are titled in your individual name, including retirement plans, and assets titled in joint names as tenants in common. It can also be used to transfer assets into your Revocable Living Trust if you become mentally incapacitated before the trust has been fully funded.

Financial Powers of Attorney come in two forms:

1. A Durable Power of Attorney, which goes into effect as soon as you sign it; and
2. A Springing Power of Attorney, which only goes into effect after you have been declared mentally incapacitated.

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