Many people put off estate planning because they mistakenly believe that it will be too difficult and time-consuming.
Younger people delay getting estate plans for all sorts of reasons. Some think that they are too young for it. Some think that they do not have enough assets to bother with it. Others think that it will be too difficult or take too long.
A columnist for The Gleaner put it off because she and her husband could not agree about who would care for their children. She wrote about their experience in “HARDY: No reason to delay estate planning.”
The article is instructive and enlightening. The writer details how once she and her husband did come to an agreement about their children, the process of getting an estate plan was not as difficult as they thought.
This might be because they took the critical step of going to an estate planning attorney instead of trying to do things for themselves.
The attorney provided the couple with a questionnaire that allowed them to think about things that they had not even considered and make their own decisions about those things. If the couple had tried to create their own estate plans, they likely would have been incomplete because of the things they did not know.
The important lesson to learn from the column is that there really is no reason to delay getting an estate plan. If you go to an estate attorney, the process will be simple and you will get a complete plan.
Reference: The Gleaner (Dec. 10, 2016) “HARDY: No reason to delay estate planning.”
