Speak to a Long Island City Estate Planning lawyer today in the 11421 area for a free phone consultation at 347-766-2685.
The Risks of Not Having an Estate Plan
Not taking estate planning seriously has always lead to big regrets later on. It doesn’t take a lot
of time and nobody has ever regretted doing it. It will save massive amounts of money and will
make sure things go the way you want it to while avoiding delays that can stretch out for years.
Not having any estate plan at all is the most common and biggest mistake that Americans
make. This is also the most expensive mistake that leads to the worst results. Majority of people
postpone estate planning until they reach old age. The usual logic behind this is “I’m young and
don’t need to worry about it till later on” or other excuses like “I don’t have a big estate right now
anyway” and in many cases, the idea of estate planning never even come to mind.
So what are the consequences of not having an estate plan?
First of all, If you are young with a small estate and young children, who will take care of them?
Who will handle your estate and cover your children’s education? Who will be responsible for
raising them and making sure they turn out well?
If you don’t have an estate plan a judge will decide all of these things for you. A judge will
choose who will be your children’s legal guardian to manage their inheritance and also choose
who will be guardian of their person who will raise them.
Judges can appoint lawyers, or professional trustees to handle your estate. These people
charge for their services and aren’t cheap. Your parents as well as your spouse’s parents will
have a lot of influence in court and godparents are not automatically chosen. The appointed
guardian chosen may not even share your beliefs or practice a different religion. Everything will
be done in court and can last for several years.
So even if you don’t have a large estate, this should be more than enough reason to have some
estate plan. You don’t want decisions like these left to people you don’t know.
Second, If you happen to have a business, you will definitely need an estate plan. Without an
estate plan, you will have no control over what happens to your business. You cannot control
who gets it or who will make all the major decisions for it when you are gone. If you don’t have
a living trust, all aspects of your business, such as finances, will be available to the public and
your competitors.
Third, depending on which state you are from, if you don’t have an estate plan, a probate judge
will award your estate according to the laws of distribution. In most cases, it is split between
your spouse and children.
And last of all, if you don’t have an estate plan, you will not be able to avoid probate. Probate is
the court process of distributing your entire estate except small ones and those with living trusts.
This is a long expensive and public process that damages families in all kinds of ways.
If you live in 11101- Long Island City Area and need help planning an estate you can call us now for a consultation.
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