When you think of November, you probably think of turkey, football, the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, and more. But, what you may not realize is that November is National Sleep Comfort Month. During this month, people talk about and discuss ways to improve their sleeping. Without an adequate amount of sleep, a person can experience some negative ramifications that affect their whole life. To sleep well, you need to not feel stressed. And there’s nothing more stressful than risking your property.

Luckily, we can help. Protecting your property is a good way to reduce stress and ease into the month of November with a good sleep pattern. With an estate plan, your property will be protected, giving you peace of mind.

How Does Estate Planning Protect Your Property?

You may be wondering how exactly an estate plan protects your property, as it’s not as though it’s a security system or guard dog. But an estate plan actually is one of the greatest protections you can have.

Estate planning is the process of putting together a plan for where your property will go after you pass on. That’s not the only function of an estate plan, however. An estate plan also allows you to have a trusted individual make healthcare decisions for you in the event of a crisis. A similar trusted person makes decisions for you financially with the “Power of Attorney” estate planning tool.

If you don’t get together an estate plan, you will be looking at some serious risk to your property in the form of probate.

Property’s Downfall: Probate

If estate planning is your alarm system, think of probate as the burglar that the alarm system is designed to stop. Probate court is the legal process of passing on the property of someone who dies without an estate plan. Just having a will is not enough to get you out of probate court.

Probate is costly, time-consuming, and all-around miserable for your family. The court takes your property and divides it how it sees fit. Your property might even go to the state, which will sell it. This unappealing result is what happens if you don’t create a plan for what will happen to your property after you die.

Morbid though this conversation is, it’s important to think about, and it does have a positive upside: with estate planning, you can avoid the doom and gloom of probate. You’ll be able to sleep easy knowing that your property is protected and secured. Schedule an estate planning consultation today!

Sunday, November 5th was daylight savings time! Who doesn’t love the extra hour to sleep in? With daylight savings time, there are tons of different things you can do with your extra hour. Sure, you can pick to watch an extra episode or two of your favorite show on Netflix, but you can (and should) switch it up this year and do something that will benefit your future and your loved ones’ future for years to come: estate planning.

Schedule an estate planning consultation! Use your extra hour wisely, and you will be able to see the long-term effects of such diligent planning. In this article, we’ll tell you a little about what to expect from your estate planning consultation, as well as extra information about some main points to know.

The Consultation

When you go to your estate planning consultation, the discussion is going to focus on your needs and the needs of your family. However, as with anything, you might want to brush up a little on the topic before you go to the consult.

There are a variety of different estate planning tools such as wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health care surrogates, and more. Here is a brief overview of the major terms to know.

Estate Planning Cheat Sheet

• Wills are a little different from estate plans, but they are important to know about anyway. Wills go into effect when you die. Wills direct who will receive your property after death. Wills don’t actually help you avoid probate; that’s not how you dodge that bullet. The only way to avoid probate is through estate planning, which is covered in the next three points.
• Trusts go into effect once you create them. You don’t have to be dead, as with a will. A trust minimizes estate taxes. It is a right in property that is held in a fiduciary relationship by one party. The trust benefits the other party. This second party is known as the beneficiary.
• Powers of Attorney. Your power of attorney acts on your behalf in financial matters if you are unable to take control of your matters for yourself. A power of attorney is a good way to make sure that you can have someone responsible taking care of your finances.
• Healthcare Surrogates. A healthcare surrogate makes healthcare decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so. Much like your POA, you want to make sure that your healthcare surrogate is responsible and knows what you want. A healthcare directive, to distinguish the two, is a written order that tells the doctors and hospital managing your care what you want to have happen if you are incapacitated.

With your extra hour, how will you spend it? For one of the days, you can use the extra hour to schedule an estate planning consultation and ensure that you have control of your future (then, of course, you can use the other days’ hours for Netflix, naptime, and relaxing).

Some of the best Halloween memories come from trick-or-treating with your friends and family. When you go up to someone’s door and say, “Trick or treat!” you know that they will almost always give you candy, never a “trick” (unless you count getting raisins as a trick). When it comes to your family, you never want to leave them tricks either, but, unfortunately, that’s just what will happen if you die without an estate plan.

Probate court is the ultimate “trick,” and making your family go through that is not a fun surprise whatsoever. In this article, we’ll talk about what probate court is and how to avoid it, ensuring that your family will not get a nasty surprise after you die.

The “Tricks” in Probate Court

Estate planning has many benefits. It gives direction on where your assets should go when you pass on, and it allows you to take advantage of tax deductions and benefits so that you don’t saddle your family with the twin evils that are creditors and taxes.

Probate court is what happens when you die without an estate plan. The court manages the distribution of your assets and debts, often selling the former to pay the latter. Your family does not get anything and, if they do, they’re likely to not get it in the way in which you would prefer. Your creditors receive whatever it takes to pay off the debts. The point of probate court is to wrap an estate up by paying off debts, and it does so through an arduous, costly, and time-consuming process.

There is always the chance that the government will get your things as well, meaning that the state now owns your property and will likely sell it. These scary alternatives are what happens when you don’t have an estate plan.

Ramifications on Your Family

You may be wondering why you should care. You’ll be dead and won’t have to worry about any of this stuff; why not let the court just do it?

That’s where you’re wrong.

Your family and loved ones will be dragged into the probate process and saddled with court costs. Whoever is deemed administrator will be in charge of the process, which can take a long time. If you want to make sure that you don’t leave your family with a nightmare, create an estate plan that will give clear directions on how to manage your property, assets, and healthcare when you are incapacitated or dead. Save the tricks for Halloween, not your family.

With this upcoming Halloween season, particularly with the release of the movie It, there is a lot to be spooked by. While probate court might not be as scary as killer clowns, it certainly is something you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

So, What IS Probate?

Probate is a legal process and not a fun one, either. Probate is often referred to as “probate court” because the process is supervised by a court. Probate is what happens when a person dies without an estate plan. The court decides how to distribute your assets and debts, leaving you with no control.

You may think, “What do I care? I’ll be dead,” but remember that your family is going to be the most heavily burdened by probate. Avoiding probate court is a must.

What Does a Probate Court Do?

Probate court handles many other functions besides simple property distribution. Probate courts determine the executor of the estate, will authentication (if there is one), identification of beneficiaries, heirs, and/or decedents, payment of debts, and other important processes that you could avoid dragging your family into court for if you take the proper steps.

The probate lawyers do most of the work, but the executor supervises. The administrator (AKA executor) obtains necessary documents, hires the attorney, manages the process, cancels credit cards, pays off debts, and more. It is not an enviable job.

While some states do allow an avoidance of probate if your estate is below a certain net worth (in California, for example, the bar is $100,000), you will probably still have to go through a process, albeit a simplified version, that would be better avoided altogether.

The Terrifying Truth

The terrifying truth is that probate court is NOT something you want your family and loved ones to endure, even if you aren’t going to be around to care. Avoiding probate court involves creating an estate plan. Estate planning will help you get organized and plan for your future in the event of your demise. A well-prepared estate plan will protect your family from the court fees and time-suck that is probate court.

Estate planning attorneys are here to help. We aid you in managing the process, drafting the necessary documents, and counseling you on the best course of action depending on your situation and what your goals are.

When you leave the theater after seeing the latest scary movie, you can rest assured that none of those monsters actually exist in real life (or at least, we hope not). However, taxes, creditors, and the government do exist, and they will make your life a real nightmare if you don’t take the proper steps to avoid them. If you don’t want your loved ones to have to go through a horror movie of their own, you will need to make an estate plan.

In this article, we will discuss what taxes, creditors, and the government do with your property if you pass on without an estate plan.

But First, what is an Estate Plan?

After reading the above section, you may be wondering what an estate plan is. An estate plan is a set of documents and legal tools that aid in the distribution of a person’s assets and property during their life (when they are ill) and after their death. An estate plan usually contains three main documents, though there may be others. These three documents are a living will, power of attorney for healthcare, and a power of attorney for financial matters. These three will help you manage your healthcare when you are sick, your finances when you are incapacitated, and your property and assets after you die.

Some people choose not to plan their estate because they feel like it is too much work or unnecessary. They couldn’t be more wrong. Failure to plan your estate will result in probate court, which be a million times more work for your family, who is already grieving after your death (for more information on probate court, see our article: The Terrifying Truth About Probate Court).

What Do the “Real Monsters” Do?

Let’s say you don’t take our advice and, like every horror movie victim ever, make the wrong decision to not plan your estate. There are three boogeymen who are going to get you: taxes, creditors, and the government.

• Taxes. You can reduce taxes when you plan your estate. There are many different tax deductions and financial maneuvers you can engage in that will make the tax burden on your loved ones far less heavy. If you die without an estate plan, however, probate will take over and they will not care how many taxes your family is stuck with (and it will likely be a lot).
• Creditors. Creditors take over collection of your debt. If you die without an estate plan, your case will go to probate court. The main goal of probate court is to pay off creditors. Your family will get nothing, and your creditors will get everything. If you want to creditor-proof your estate, avoid probate.
• The government. If you die without an estate plan and don’t have decedents, beneficiaries, and other individuals listed, there is a good chance that the government will get at least some of your property.

Hopefully, this article has given you some insight into who the real monsters are and where they are hiding. The clown in It may have been lurking in the sewers, but taxes, creditors, and the government are hiding in probate court.