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!