Halloween is just around the corner, and it seems as though everywhere you look, there are fall festivals, pumpkins, scary costumes, and stores full of festive décor. For a lot of us, it is our favorite time of the year. However, horror movies and haunted houses are one thing—the real scary moments in life are another. 

Estate planning can help you through life’s scariest moments, such as illness and injury, death, divorce, and even happy-scary times like marriage, new births, and other major changes. This article will walk you through how estate planning can help you prepare for huge events in your life.

Illness and Injury

Illness and injury are perhaps the two most common items on this list of life changes, and that’s a shame, as neither are very pleasant. Luckily, estate planning can help you through these tough periods of your life, even if you’re not well enough to handle them yourself. Here are some legal tools that can aid you if you’re sick or injured:

• Financial Power of Attorney. This trusted individual is someone that you handpick and appoint to manage your financial affairs in the event that you’re too incapacitated to do so yourself. 
• Healthcare Power of Attorney. Much like the financial power of attorney, this person is someone you trust with decision-making. Except, instead of financial decisions, your healthcare PoA helps you with healthcare-related issues, talking to doctors, nurses, long-term-care facilities, and more on your behalf. 
• Healthcare Directive. A healthcare directive communicates your wishes to doctors and nurses in the event that you’re too sick to do so yourself. This is an intensely personal document, often consisting of DNR orders, religious views and preferences, and similar requests. 

Death

Alas, death comes for us all—as the old saying goes, death and taxes are the two unavoidable burdens in life. One of estate planning’s primary goals is to distribute assets responsibly after you die, and having documents like a last will and testament can help you do so.

A last will and testament is a final expression of your will. This legal document appoints an executor and lets the court know where your assets should be distributed and to whom. A trust, on the other hand, does not have to go through the probate process, as it is an immediate transfer of property title to a trustee for the benefit of a beneficiary. 

Whichever legal document you choose, you don’t want to DIY it. Hire an attorney to draft your estate plan in order to ensure no technicalities are missed and all documents comply with the law.

Divorce and Marriage

When you get divorced, you will want to immediately revise your estate plan. You won’t want your ex-spouse listed as a beneficiary on any legal documents and changing that in your plan is a must-do. On the reverse side, the same goes for marriage. You’ll want, in this case, to add your spouse into your estate plan wherever applicable. Both of these major life events require you to take a second look at your estate plan. 

New Births 

When new members are added to the family, that is a cause for celebration. It is also a cause to call up your estate planning attorney. A new birth might mean a new heir, and you don’t want him or her to feel left out in your will.

The rule of thumb is that you should update your estate plan every three to five years or after a major life change like the ones listed above. Life can throw curveballs at you, but estate planning will help you keep your eye on the ball. Call WFP to draft your estate plan today. 

Cryptocurrency has really taken off in the past ten years, and coins like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and many, many more majors, minors, and exotics have become mainstream as a form of digital currency. Crypto assets are assets, and that means that they have a purpose and a place in your estate plan, if you own them. In this guide, we’ll talk about the basics of cryptocurrency in estate planning. 

Legal Developments

Cryptocurrency is far newer than, say, money or stocks. These assets have been around for centuries, and land and property have been around for even longer. Crypto, by comparison, is very, very new. This means that crypto laws, protocol, and regulations are changing every day, and this changing nature is why it is important to contact an attorney to handle your digital asset affairs. A licensed attorney will ensure that you are properly following the law and not missing anything unintentionally that could get you in trouble later. 

There are a lot of advantages to crypto, though the digital coins come with their downsides, too. Crypto can offer protection from inflation, and it is decentralized, self-governed, and private. Currency exchanges are easy to conduct and, depending on what you are buying, crypto coins are often the most cost-effective way to transact and conduct business. This guide will walk you through some of the basics of estate planning and cryptocurrency. 

Providing Access

One of the most important things to consider when you are estate planning with crypto is to ensure that your executor (the person distributing your assets after you die in accordance with your will and other documents) knows what crypto assets you hold and how to access them. Forbes released a report recently that said that accessing crypto is the “most difficult component” to this entire process.

Investors need passwords, access codes, digital keys, and more to access their assets. They are notoriously private about these personal codes, but that privacy should not be overdone; otherwise, you risk losing everything when you die, your tokens going permanently un-invested and unused.

Writing down, on paper, your crypto keys, passwords, and all the information about how to access your tokens in a must-do. Explain the type of assets, access controls, and key locations for this digital currency. PINs, multi-signature, passphrases, time-lock requirements, and more should all go on this document. When you’re done, make copies. Store these papers in a lockbox at your bank or somewhere equally as secure.

What is Recommended? 

Crypto experts in this emerging field have come up with some recommendations for estate planning with digital assets. These include: 

• Making two copies 
• Storing the copies in separate secure locations 
• Keeping your list updated frequently 

Many states have enacted laws that allow executors to manage crypto and other digital assets in the same way (or similar to, at least) that traditional assets are managed. This can help executors, who often feel the urge to sell off crypto quickly. Executors won’t feel as much backlash from heirs if currency values drop, as they won’t have sold the coins.

But again, all of this is moot unless crypto keys and other access instructions are given. A court order is impotent if you cannot access the digital assets. If you do not leave clear instructions for your executor to access your keys, you could be setting your heirs up for legal ramifications, such as a lawsuit. 

This new field might be a little confusing to you, as laws change every day. Contact an attorney to learn more about how you can protect this asset in your estate plan. 

In addition to being “Spooky Season,” we mustn’t forget that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. The fight against breast cancer is still ongoing all around the world, and research is ongoing every day to find new treatments and, hopefully, a cure for this illness. Around 288,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed by the end of 2022, according to the American Cancer Society. Sadly, in 2022, around 43,250 women will, unfortunately, die from this life-threatening disease. 

Around one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, underscoring the importance of getting regular mammograms to stay ahead of the disease. Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds us to think about the people we love. Luckily, there are legal tools to help us do just that. 

Estate Planning and Illness

Estate planning is very important, especially if you have a chronic or acute illness. Estate planning allows you to protect your assets and transfer them to designated heirs after you die. But, that aspect is just one small part of this expansive legal field. There are also useful tools and documents that can help you if you are incapacitated and/or sick. Here are three main ones below, but this list is far from extensive. 

Power of Attorney

A power of attorney is a trusted individual (whether part of your family or not) who you appoint to manage your financial and/or healthcare affairs in the event that you become too incapacitated to do so yourself. Your power of attorney will make key decisions relating to your healthcare, and they will communicate with doctors, nurses, banks, and whoever else in order to keep your affairs in order. 

Some traits of a good power of attorney include: 

• Understanding. Your power of attorney should understand what their duties are and how to execute them. He or she should know when to ask for help when necessary. You want a PoA who knows what they don’t know.
• Communicative. You want a power of attorney who can communicate and collaborate constructively and effectively with lawyers, accountants, medical staff, and others. If your “trusted individual” is notoriously belligerent or hard to deal with, they won’t be the best choice. 
• Trustworthy. You’re entrusting this person with major life decisions. You want to know that they have your best interests at heart at all times. 
• Logistics. You’ll want a power of attorney who lives nearby or, at least, who is able to be a constructive presence when needed. 

Healthcare Directive

Much like a power of attorney, your healthcare directive comes into effect when you are too incapacitated to voice your own wishes yourself. That said, this directive is its own document, far separate from a PoA document. The directive outlines your wishes to doctors and nurses when you’re not able to tell them these on your own. Examples of wishes can include Do-Not-Resuscitate instructions, religious views, and other personal, important orders. 

Guardianship

If you have minor kids, you do not want to forget to include guardianship papers in your estate plan. If you die, who will take over your parenting duties? Your proposed guardian should, first of all, be on-board with their appointment. They should be someone you trust, who can take care of your kids’ day to day needs and nurture them. 

The Main Goals 

The main goals of estate planning include minimizing expenses legally, distributing assets responsibly, and maintaining control while living. It is this third goal to which this article references: the ability to keep as much control as you can over your life, even if ill. 

Though we never want to think of the worst-case scenario, Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds us that we have to keep our estate plans in place in order to ensure that, in the event of illness, our loved ones are protected. Contact an estate-planning attorney today to help you set up your plan.