What involves “love, money and the compounded effect of a lifetime of emotional experiences?”
We’ll assume that readers uniformly and promptly answered estate administration, which, indeed, centrally embodies all those considerations.
There is certainly no dearth of information cascading from media sources informing individuals and families in California and across the rest of the country that timely and thoughtful estate planning is something that is broadly important and conducive to peace of mind.
And yet, notwithstanding the constant nudges from pundits encouraging a proactive stance regarding the establishment of an estate plan, millions of American procrastinate.
If you’re one of them, don’t despair. As noted in a well-considered article discussing estate planning and timing considerations, it is understandable how delay in implementing a sound plan can result. Life is sometimes a careening and less-than-tidy proposition. The years pass. Things get swept under the carpet.
Thus, any advice regarding planning should skip lectures about tardiness.
As pointed out in the above-cited article, though, a gentle nudge might suffice to remind would-be planners why taking purposeful action without further delay confers broad-based benefits on all affected parties and avoids conflict that can easily arise down the road in the absence of a plan.
When duly reflected upon, it becomes quite clear for many people why “one of the best gifts you can provide your loved ones is a seamless, stress-free transition of your estate.”
And doing that while you are still alive — lucid and capable of making important financial and health-related decisions — makes eminent sense, especially when the alternative is considered: dying or growing incapacitated without having attended to important family matters.
A sound estate plan — that is, a truly effective plan that fully considers and incorporates strategies affecting bequests, tax implications, family values, charitable giving and other important matters — is indeed a gift, both to the planner in terms of peace of mind and to the persons centrally addressed through the details of estate administration.
A proven estate planning attorney can provide further information.
