Estate Planning: When Is The Time Right?
It is understandable that a lot of people wind up putting estate planning on the back burner for a number of different reasons. For one thing, you tend to put off the unpleasant things that you would rather not think about. This is an emotional choice, but even if you have no problem addressing your own mortality, you may procrastinate when it comes to planning your estate because it seems like you are too young to have to worry about it. Others put it off because they know that their situation is going to change and they are waiting for things to “settle down.”
All of these reasons make sense in a way, but each and every one of them can lead to a horrible situation for your loved ones. The fact is that you never know when your time will come, and we all read about tragic accidents that take the lives of people before their time every day.
In addition, illness and disease can strike suddenly and without warning leaving incapacity in its wake. To underscore this reality think back to the highly publicized case of Terri Schiavo. This was a young woman who was in the prime of her life when she went into full cardiac arrest at 26 years of age.
A courtroom battle between her parents and her husband ensued regarding continued use of feeding tubes to keep her alive after she had been in a non-responsive state for some eight years. Her case has done much to raise public awareness about the importance of the living will and durable medical power of attorney.
From a financial perspective, if you were to die suddenly without an estate plan state laws would dictate the distribution of your assets, and the matter could be stuck in probate for a very long time.
Clearly, we can all understand why people sometimes procrastinate. But when it comes to estate planning, when you do so you are doing some high stakes gambling that offers no real rewards. If you do not have an estate plan in place, now is the time to take action.
