Most relatively young adults do not have any type of legacy planning documents in place, and while this is understandable to some extent, every responsible person should have an estate plan. When you engage in the process of legacy planning, you make sure that everyone that you love will be provided for come what may.
You invariably carry insurance of various different kinds to protect yourself from potential events that may never happen. Everyone is going to pass away, but a very significant percentage of people who protect themselves from possible losses with insurance fail to prepare for this inevitable event.
While it is true that the life expectancy is around 78 years, there are no guarantees. If you don’t think about the situation that your loved ones would be in if you were to pass away unexpectedly, you are doing them a disservice.
One of the important things to understand about legacy planning is the fact that it is inherently connected to the financial planning that you engage in throughout your life. For example, as you are looking toward the future, you may be confident about your health care expenses as a senior citizen because you will qualify for Medicare.
Most seniors will qualify for Medicare coverage when they reach the age of 65, but there are still out-of-pocket expenses for things that are covered. Plus, the program does not pay for custodial care, which is the type of care that you would receive in a nursing home or assisted living community.
If you do not address these potential expenses when you are creating a retirement budget, everything that you intended to leave to your loved ones could go toward nursing home costs. In the end, there may be nothing left because nursing homes are very expensive.
Nationally, the average charge for a private room in a nursing home is over $90,000, and costs have been rising.
There are steps that you can take to protect your assets from devastating nursing home costs so that you can preserve your legacy for the benefit of your loved ones.
This is just one consideration that you may not think about if you have never discussed your situation with an estate planning attorney. You may assume that you can quickly create your last will when you are older, but as you can see, there is much more to the equation, and a will is not always the best choice.
Take Action in 2016
People often resolve to make changes when a new year rolls around. You can address personal goals, but you may also resolve to take care of matters that you have been placing on the back burner.
If you are unprepared from an estate planning perspective, we encourage you to take action in 2016. We provide our clients with personalized attention, and we can help you devise an estate plan that leads to the fruition of your legacy goals.
To schedule a consultation, send us a message through this page and we will get back in touch with you promptly: Charlotte NC Estate Planning Attorneys.
John’s practice focuses on the use of Wills and Living Trusts in Estate Planning to help individuals protect their families and preserve their legacies after their deaths, but his practice also focuses on the critical issues of protecting individuals with dementia or other diminished capacity, assisting individuals in qualifying for Medicaid and other government benefits to offset the costs of long-term care, and providing special needs planning.
John is admitted to practice law in North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio, and he is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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