What Estate Planning Documents Do I Need?

We hear some version of this all the time. Estate planning is remarkably easy to put off because, most of the time, nothing feels urgent. You’ll take care of it after summer. After the holidays. When work slows down. When the kids are older. When life isn’t quite so busy. Then five or ten years can pass.

A recent CBS News article, “Why most Americans still don’t have a will and the 3 documents every adult needs,” highlighted how many Americans continue to put off basic estate planning. The real concern isn’t simply that someone hasn’t signed a will. It’s what can happen when a death, accident, or serious illness occurs before a plan is in place.

Estate planning gives you an opportunity to make important decisions while they are still yours to make.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in Indiana?

If you die without a valid will, Indiana law has rules that determine who receives property that passes through your probate estate. Those rules may happen to match what you would have wanted. They may not. More importantly, you gave up the opportunity to make that decision yourself.

A will can state how certain property should be distributed, nominate the person you want to administer your estate, and address other important issues. Parents of minor children can also use a will to nominate the person they would want considered as guardian if both parents were unable to care for their children. Still, a will is only one part of an estate plan.

Some property may pass according to beneficiary designations, account ownership, transfer-on-death arrangements, or trusts rather than through a will. That is why estate planning should look at your entire financial and family picture instead of treating a will as a stand-alone document.

Your Estate Plan Matters While You’re Still Alive

One of the biggest misconceptions about estate planning is that it is only about death. Some of the most important questions actually involve what happens while you are living. Suppose you’re seriously injured in an accident and cannot manage your finances. Who can pay the mortgage, deal with the insurance company, access the accounts necessary to pay your bills, or handle other financial matters for you?

What if you are unable to communicate with your doctors? Who do you trust to participate in healthcare decisions? These aren’t questions reserved for older adults. Incapacity can happen at any age, and families can find themselves trying to solve legal problems at the same time they are dealing with a medical crisis. A properly prepared financial power of attorney can authorize someone you trust to act on your behalf for the matters addressed in the document. Healthcare planning documents can also allow you to communicate your wishes and identify the person you want involved in medical decisions if you cannot make or communicate those decisions yourself.

Without appropriate planning, families may have fewer options. In some circumstances, court involvement through a guardianship proceeding may become necessary. There is an important difference between choosing someone yourself and having your family ask a court for authority after you can no longer make that choice.

Your Beneficiary Designations Are Part of the Plan Too

You can have a well-drafted will and still leave behind an estate plan that doesn’t work the way you expected. Beneficiary designations are a good example. Retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and certain financial accounts commonly allow you to designate who should receive the asset after your death. Those designations can have significant consequences because these assets may pass outside the terms of your will.

Imagine creating a new will after a divorce or remarriage but never reviewing an old retirement account or life insurance policy. Perhaps you named someone years ago and haven’t looked at the form since. That is exactly the kind of detail that can be overlooked when estate planning is treated as simply “getting a will.” A good estate plan considers how your will, trusts, beneficiary designations, account ownership, real estate, and other assets work together. If one piece says something different from the others, the result may not be what you intended.

When Did You Last Review Your Estate Plan?

Signing estate planning documents shouldn’t necessarily be the last time you think about them. Life changes. The people you trusted ten years ago may not be the people you would choose today. Your children grow up. Families experience marriages, divorces, deaths, births, illnesses, and changes in relationships. Your financial situation can also look very different from what it did when the original plan was created.

Major life events are a natural time to pull the documents back out. Marriage or remarriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, the death of someone named in your plan, a significant change in assets, a serious medical diagnosis, or growing concerns about long-term care can all be reasons to review your planning. Even if nothing dramatic has happened, periodically reviewing the plan can be worthwhile. Laws change, finances change, and sometimes your own priorities simply change. The question isn’t whether your estate plan was appropriate on the day you signed it. The better question is whether it still fits your life today.

Does Everyone Need a Trust?

Trusts get a great deal of attention in estate planning, which sometimes leaves people thinking they either definitely need one or definitely don’t. Neither assumption is particularly helpful. There are many kinds of trusts, and they serve different purposes. A revocable living trust, a special needs trust, and a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, for example, are designed to address very different planning concerns.

For some families, a trust may provide useful control over how assets are managed or distributed. It may be worth exploring when there are minor children, a family member with special needs, a second marriage, concerns about a beneficiary’s ability to manage an inheritance, certain property considerations, long-term care planning goals, or other circumstances that require more than a simple distribution at death. Additionally, other families may need a different approach.

Instead of beginning with, “Do I need a trust?” we prefer to begin with, “What am I trying to accomplish?” Once we understand the family, the assets, the concerns, and the goals, we can discuss which planning tools may fit.

Estate Planning Is Really About Making Things Clearer for the People You Love

People sometimes think estate planning is primarily about money. Money certainly matters, but much of estate planning is really about responsibility.

Who will step in?

Who will make decisions?

Who knows what you want?

Who has the legal authority to actually carry those wishes out?

Your family may still grieve and may still have difficult decisions to make. A good estate plan does not remove every complication that comes with illness or death. What it can do is give the people you love clearer instructions and a legal framework for handling many of the decisions they may face. That is why putting an estate plan in place can be such a meaningful thing to do for your family.

How Vick Law Can Help

At Vick Law, we don’t believe estate planning should begin with a stack of documents and a list of boxes to check. It should begin with a conversation. We want to understand your family, what you own, whom you trust, what concerns you, and what you want your plan to accomplish. A young family with minor children may need to think about very different issues than a couple approaching retirement. Someone in a second marriage may have concerns that a single parent, business owner, caregiver, or family with a special needs child does not. Your plan should reflect those differences.

Depending on your circumstances, that conversation may include wills, financial powers of attorney, healthcare planning documents, beneficiary designations, trusts, long-term care concerns, or other planning strategies. If you already have an estate plan, we can review what you have and discuss whether it still reflects your family, finances, and wishes. You don’t need to wait until something happens to find out whether your plan is ready.

If estate planning has been sitting on your “we need to do that” list for a while, this may be a good time to finally have the conversation. Contact Vick Law online HERE or give us a call to schedule an estate planning consultation.

Vick Law, P.C.
3209 W. Smith Valley Rd., Suite 113
Greenwood, IN 46142
(317) 884-3133

This article is provided for general educational purposes only. Estate planning needs vary based on individual circumstances and applicable law. This information is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.