Estate Planning is necessary!

Estate Planning is more important than you can ever imagine. According to Investopedia, ‘Estate planning is making plans for the transfer of your estate after death.’ Assets include cash, clothes, jewellery, houses, flats, lands, cars, policies, investments, Bank accounts, intellectual properties and many more. Your estate comprises of everything you own.

No matter how large or how modest your estate is, you need estate planning. People generally have a common misconception that elderly or substantially wealthy people need estate planning and the process is complex, time taking and pricey. However, it is not at all. Technological innovations have made estate planning easy, safe, convenient and affordable.

It is never too soon to start thinking about estate planning. Here are a few steps you can follow to make your estate planning easier –

• Organise all the important documents and inform your key family members about their whereabouts.
• Make a list of all the things you own (houses, flats, properties, collectables, jewellery, intellectual creations, mortgages, policies, loans, accounts, etc.).
• Print copies of all the documents involved in the list.
• Make a note of the values and benefits of policies.
• Think about the objective of your estate planning and write it down.
• Consider who the beneficiaries, power of attorneys (in case of a medical emergency) will be.
• Consider an alternative option if something happens to your beneficiaries.
• Don’t forget to mention the guardianship of your minors.
• Note down who should handle your assets if you become unable to make decisions.
• Consider if you want to establish a Trust.
• Visit online legal Will makers to create your Will or Trust or review your Will or Trust (if you have one in place).

Estate planning starts with the creation of a Will or a revocable/irrevocable Trust. A Will or Trust legally ensures that your estate plan will be protected and safely transferred to your family when you will be gone forever. Without an estate plan, all the decisions will be made by the governing laws, which might lead to a property dispute, repeated court sessions, repeated documentation and other proceedings, leading to stress, loss o money and time for your beneficiaries.

Estate planning is for any adult person, who is of a sound mind and healthy. Individuals push away estate planning to a later date/day because they think they are not old enough, they don’t own enough, they are busy, who will help them, or they think it is unnecessary at that moment. Then, when something happens to them, their families undergo a tough time picking up the pieces. While you might feel morbid about planning ahead for something that is yet to happen, don’t forget without an estate plan you don’t get make the decisions about your loved one’s future and you might end up losing the hard-earned legacy that you have obtained or your estate may end up with someone who you did not wish to share with.

Thus, when you are in good health and free from emotional stress, get your estate planning done. Your estate planning should involve the following –

• Proper instructions for distribution of your assets
• Healthcare directives if you become disabled before dying
• Guardianship details and inheritance manager if you have minor kids
• Special needs for your loved ones without hampering government benefits
• Beneficiary options if you need to save the future of someone from creditors or divorce
• Policy distribution to provide for your family without any disputes
• Transferring the ownership of the business (if you own one)
• Legal guardianship of minor/disabled children

Estate planning is not a single one-time event. It needs to be reviewed and updated as per your family, financial and law changes over the lifetime. A good estate planning keeps families with modest assets happy and healthy. Estate planning is necessary for the following reasons –

• It allows you to choose who gets what and how much
• It protects your hard-earned legacy from getting lost
• It diminishes the chances of family feuds and ugly legal strife
• It protects your minor children’s future
• It helps to organize records, correct titles and beneficiary designations

Here’s an instance of estate planning, that will help you to understand the importance of it –

Mrs Rao was gifted a house by her parents and it is mutated in her name in the revenue records. She has five sons. The house has two portions and she decided to give each portion to two of her sons who performed the obsequies of her parents and to give some cash and jewellery to her other three sons. How should she plan to distribute her property and what are the legal options available to her?

At the outset, the house being gifted to her is deemed to be her self-acquired property, so she is the absolute owner and can give it to anyone and in any manner she likes. She can either –

Execute a will clearly indicating her intention of bequeathing the house to her two sons and cash or any other money to her other three sons and register it, which will take effect only after her demise, or Execute a family settlement deed with the consent of all concerned reaching a satisfactory agreement by talking and exploring options with the help of a family well-wisher/mediator or Execute two gift deeds- one, transferring the house to the two sons and another gift deed giving away money/cash to the other three sons get it registered as per Sec. 123 of the Transfer of Property Act. The gift deeds will be valid if and only if the donee’s sign accepting the said gift.

With her well-drafted estate plan, she can avoid sibling rivalry and family feud by –

• Weighing the emotions and family dynamics
• Communicating with their adult children about post-mortem planning with convincing arguments for treating children differently

Estate planning has become affordable, easier and convenient with Gift My Legacy. They provide services of creating legal online Will or Trust within 10 minutes from anywhere at any time. Their legal advisory team will help you to get your Will or Trust made without any hassle. Also, Gift My Legacy has the feature to store all the important estate planning documents digitally and access it any time from any place. The best benefit of estate planning is peace of mind!