Estate Planning & Probate: Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Estate Planning
- Protect Those Closest To You
- Plan For Life's Curveballs
- Make Your Wishes Known
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Probate
- Recover assets absent governmental intrusion
- Respect the wishes of the decedent
- Move on with life
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The Three Essential Estate Planning Documents
Will
When you think of a will, you probably think of one thing, property. But a will is often concerned with far more than just the disposition of your property. Fundamentally, the purpose of a will is to save your loved ones stress, and expense during what will be one of the worst times of their lives. Having a will set up in advance is the cornerstone of any good estate plan.
Power of Attorney
A power of attorney is another document that you may be familiar with by name, if not in substance. It allows another person to act on your behalf. The reason that this document is an essential part of any estate plan is that we can't ever know the future. If you wait until you can no longer act on your own behalf then it is already too late. By carefully drafting these documents in advance, we can plan for the curveballs that life throws.
Healthcare Directive
A healthcare directive is the final essential estate planning document, especially in the era of COVID. A Healthcare Directive informs your healthcare professionals and family what your religious or extra-religious values are for healthcare and what care you should or should not be given should you be unable to speak for yourself.
Why Choose Us
Managing your estate or that of your family members is a personal task that you want handled with the utmost care. We understand the impact that these decisions can have. Your estate will be our priority, and we will help you to make your wishes known.
Estate Planning FAQS
If you have a child, a house, or a significant amount of other property that you care about you should have a will set up. Without a will, you’re leaving the the outcome to Minnesota’s intestacy laws, which rarely will coincide with what you wanted, and frequently can result in awful outcomes for those that you care about most.
Unlike some of the other documents that you find in your estate plan, you should NEVER make copies your will. When you make a copy of your will it makes it more likely that the original will can be contested in court as illegitimate, which is something that proper estate planning seeks to stave off.
A trust is a document that allows you to exercise control over property through a third party, called a trustee. There are many different types of trusts, and each has distinct purposes. They are often used to provide gifts with proverbial strings attached, or to shelter items from tax liability or offer privacy. Though a trust is not an essential estate planning document for every estate, talking over the implications of a trust with an estate planning attorney is certainly to your benefit.
This is a difficult question to answer in a simple text format. The answer in the most general sense, is whenever anything relevant to your estate plan changes. As to what ‘relevant’ means, these are the types of questions that you will want to run by your estate planning attorney as it will differ for each person’s plan. Certainly, if you have a child or another child, had a change in marital status, or experienced a death in the family that would have been reflected in the original will, it’s time to update your will. For some folks, those will be the only changes that require an update. Others will have far more considerations.
Because it may be advisable to change your will from time to time, the best place to keep it is somewhere safe that is still in your possession. A safety deposit box is a common location, or a safe in the house. Wherever you keep it, you want to make sure that your family members, and especially your personal representative and attorney know where it is.
Minnesota has two authorities for Powers of Attorney, the Statutes and the Common Law. Unfortunately, due to the Statutes laying out a document that gets used far more frequently, Common Law powers of attorney are often not recognized as valid by various institutions. This is relevant because the Statutes only allow for a power of attorney document to become active immediately upon your signing, you cannot wait for it to activate upon some condition, say – if you become incapacitated and can no longer act on your own behalf.
In Minnesota, every will must have 2 witnesses. Anyone who is competent and of clear and sound mind can be one of these witnesses, so technically you can have your beneficiaries as your witnesses. However, it is generally a better practice to have uninterested parties (people who do not stand to inherit in the will) as witnesses whenever possible.
You can appoint anyone to be your personal representative, but because they are responsible for carrying out all of your wishes you should make sure to appoint someone that you trust, and someone that you know can handle everything that will be involved in the process.
A person appointed by a power of attorney document to act on your behalf is called your attorney-in-fact. Any competent adult can act as your attorney-in-fact. However, because of the powers that you are potentially granting to this person, you will want to be very careful with whom you choose. This should be someone that you trust implicitly to make the greatest and most important decisions that can be made.
You can make simple changes to your will by executing a document called a codicil which is simpler than re-doing a will from scratch. However, for more complex changes you will likely want to re-write the will.
Each of your agents appointed in your healthcare directive should have copies, any and all of your potential doctors should have copies, and family members should also have copies.
While estate planning together as a couple may often be advantageous for a number of reasons, financial, and otherwise, each partner should still have their own will.