I speak to a lot of people about estate planning, and some of them hire me to draft documents for them. Most people don’t see estate planning as having any urgency, so they put it off, sometimes indefinitely. Then I came across this post from the Wills, Trusts and Estates Prof Blog and it helped me to see it in a new light: looking at estate planning as good business planning.
Estate planning is about protection, but it is also about planning for success. My job is to understand where you are and where you want to be, and create that plan so that your success happens – success in this case being defined as your wealth transferring to the people you want to have it, at the time when you want them to have it, as tax-efficiently as possible. This requires a will, powers of attorney for property and care, beneficiary designations, possibly some trust documents, and certainly some tax advice with your accountant.
Only you know what is valuable to you. My job is to make sure that happens. Be a business owner of your life.
