While you are busy doing your taxes this year, it is also a good time to think about getting an estate plan.
Every year at about this time, Americans breathe a big sigh of relief when they seal their tax returns and send them off to the IRS or hit “send” to file electronically. The sigh is even bigger, if the envelope did not include a check written to the government and the tax filer can expect to receive a refund in the next couple of months.
No one likes doing their own taxes.
When they are finally done, the last thing that most people want to do is to deal with more financial issues. However, it is a good idea to do one more thing, as CTV News points out in “The mistakes of not having a will.”
When you finish doing your taxes, you should get an estate plan or update your plan, if you already have one.
To do your taxes, you had to get out many of your financial documents. You have also been thinking about how much money you have and where it is all located. Doing those things is one of the first steps to getting an estate plan.
You could put all of your financial documents away and think about other things. However, if you later decided to do estate planning, you will have to start all over again.
Why not just go ahead and get an estate plan now, while things are still on your mind?
Reference: CTV News (March 21, 2017) “The mistakes of not having a will.”
