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What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning involves putting together a plan that appoints someone you trust to act and make decisions for you when you can't. There are a variety of practical decisions and judgments based on the amount and type of assets owned, your family, and your goals. Estate planning covers legal and financial considerations like taxes, business succession, and personal choices, like health care arrangements, property distribution and a variety of others issues depending on your circumstances.
What do Estate Planning Attorneys do?
While you're living and healthy, you take for granted your ability to make your own decisions about your finances, property, health care, and raising your children. When you die or become incapacitated, you'll need others to handle these matters. Estate planning helps to ensure that they are people you trust and that they will handle things according to your wishes.
A skillful attorney can walk you through the process of a choosing effective Agents and drafting estate plans that can be carried out smoothly, diminishing the possibility of inheritance disputes, or will and trust challenges.
It's easy to be lured by legal product providers like Legalzoom, or do-it-yourself software programs, but only qualified attorneys can properly interpret the laws that bear on property rights, taxes, wills, probate, and trusts. A qualified attorney can make sure that your estate documents comply with the laws of your state, maximize your legal advantages, and take care of your wishes and your family's well-being.
What if You Die without a Will?
If you die without a will in Utah, state law will determine who inherits your estate. In Utah, 100% will go a surviving spouse, unless there are children from a previous marriage. If there is no surviving spouse, it goes to children and grandchildren, and if no children it goes to the decedents parents, and then to relatives outside of the immediate family.
This is a plan that works for many, but may not reflect your wishes. With a will you can designate exactly who gets what. There are other functions of a will — designating the person you want to care for your minor children, who will settle your affairs, and provide for others who are not directly related, or give to charity.
What is a Revocable or Living Trust?
A Revocable Trust, sometimes called a Living Trust is a trust that you create and can administer yourself. You can revoke or amend it at any time. The trust becomes the legal owner of your property and the trustee (probably you) manage it for your own benefit. If you become incapacitated or pass away, the trust becomes irrevocable and a your chosen successor trustee (often your spouse) administers it for the benefit of your heirs according to your instrustions.
Property belonging to the trust does not have to go through probate, which can save time and money and Trust documents are not public so your family and financial affairs remain private.
What is an Irrevocable Trust?
An irrevocable trust may not be altered or terminated with court permission. They are often, but not always done to take advantage of favorable tax laws. Other commonly used Trusts are: Charitable Trusts and Special Needs Trust (established so a disabled person can receive financial assistance without jeopardizing government benefits.) You can set up trusts to provide for minor children, to reduce taxes, manage and protect assets, avoid probate, etc.
There are many different types of trusts that can be used to fit your needs and reach your goals. Whether any certain trust makes sense depends on your individual circumstances. The qualified Attorneys at Hughes Estate Group can walk you through the ins and outs of estate planning and explainyour options.
Important Estate Planning Tools
Financial Powers of Attorney - Giving some one a power of attorney is an important decision and a powerful estate planning tool. These powers allow one or more persons to act as an agent on your behalf. They can be very limited, say for a single transaction, or broad, so that someone can handle all of your financial affairs. You can have powers of attorney that take effect immediately or you can have them valid only when you are incapacitated. If you don't have a power of attorney and for some reason are unable to handle your own affairs, a court might step in and appoint one.
Medical Directives or Living Wills - A medical directive or living will is your written instructions on how you want to be treated medically in if you are terminally ill or injured, or you are permanently unconscious. Living wills do not determine decisions made in routine medical treatment and non life-threatening situations.
Health Care Powers of Attorney - With a Health Care Power of Attorney you designate a person to make medical decisions for you when you can't. An example of when this might be used is if you had a medical emergency, an accident or heart attack, and were not conscious or mentally capable of making decisions. Health Directives are important because they allow you to express your preferences. Physicians appreciate these documents. Often times family members, though well intentioned, will disagree.
Health Directives should be a part of your estate planning process, the physician knows what you want and whose direction should be followed. They also relieve your family from the responsibility of having to guess your wishes and make difficult medical decisions in stressful situations.
