Do you know why millennials need an estate plan? If you are younger than 45 or 50, you may not think you need to worry about estate planning. That is something you do when you start thinking about retirement, right?
Those of us who are young and healthy have our whole lives ahead of us and plenty of time to worry about things like that later.
But the unfortunate truth is no one knows when something might happen to change their plans. Cars crash, people get sick, and sometimes young people die long before their time.
If you are on the fence about starting your estate plan, read on to discover three reasons why you should not put it off any longer.
To Protect Your Children
As millennials start heading into our thirties, many of us have children or have babies on the way. It may seem crazy to start thinking about your own death as soon as your child is born, but it becomes a much more pressing issue at that point. If something were to happen to you, who will take care of your child?
Setting up a will can help make sure your kids are taken care of if you or your partner pass away. Without one, they may go into the foster care system or wind up bouncing from relative to relative as a court sees fit. Some places offer family-friendly estate planning events, so there is no reason not to set up a plan to protect your kids.
To Control Your Health Care
One of the biggest advantages of having an estate plan in place is it allows you more control over your health care. Under normal circumstances, of course, you have a say in what medical treatments you do or do not get. But if you are in a coma or otherwise unresponsive or incoherent, that control will go away.
Having a plan in place can make sure your wishes are respected when it comes to your health care. For example, maybe you hold the view that you would rather die peacefully than stay on long-term life support or live with a debilitating brain injury. Having those wishes down in writing ahead of time can save your family (and yourself) a lot of heartaches and legal battles.
To Give Your Partner Rights
By this point, you may be saying, “Well if any of these things happen, I trust my partner to make the right decisions for me.” And while that is a wonderful thing, what happens if your partner does not have legal rights to make those decisions. Believe it or not, sometimes a person’s partner is not assigned as their power of attorney, especially if you are not married.
If you want your partner to be the person making the decisions if something happens to you, you need to have that down in writing. You can give them the authority to do everything from managing your health care choices to taking care of your children. Giving your partner authority will save a lot of legal battles and the risk that your wishes are not respected if you are not there.
Get Started on Your Estate Plan
Estate planning can be a somewhat morbid business; after all, no one likes to think about their own death. But it is the best way to ensure that if something does happen, your wishes and your loved ones are protected.
If you are not sure where to start the estate planning process, contact us. We provide family estate planning to help you get your affairs in order so you can enjoy your life worry-free.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation.