Featured Blog Post

The new year is an excellent time to take stock of your assets and ensure that your estate plan is up to date and reflects your current wishes. Whether you are creating or revising your estate plan—or if it has been in place for many years—the following questions will provide insight on what your estate plan should include.

1. Do you have an existing will?
If you answered yes, do you know where your will is stored? Can your executor/personal representative access it? It is important for your executor to be able to find your will so that it can be submitted to probate. If your executor cannot locate your will, the court will treat it as if it never existed.

It is also wise to inform your executor of the details of your charitable giving, your intentions behind them, and the charity or charities you would like to be mentioned in your obituary to receive memorial gifts. It is important that your executor know if you have named a charitable organization as the beneficiary of your retirement funds. This helps ensure an efficient transfer and that the gift is designated at the charity as you intend.

If your answer is no, your assets will be distributed according to the inflexible laws of your state. If you want to control who receives your assets and how they receive them, you must prepare a will as the first step in your estate plan.

2. Have you prepared health care advance directives?
If yes, have you given a copy of these documents to your primary care physician and your local hospital? Can the person you have named as your health care surrogate find them? Similar to your will, those documents need to be accessible to your health care team so that your wishes will be followed.

If you have not prepared these documents and you wish to control the course of your health care should you become incapacitated, you must name a health care surrogate and have a living will in place. Those documents vary from state to state—and in most cases, you can find them through your primary care physician or online. You do not need to engage an attorney to implement these documents.

3. Do you have a plan in place for your digital estate?
Unless you do absolutely nothing on the internet, you have some type of digital estate. Do you participate in some form of social media? Do you pay your bills online? Do you have an email account? A yes to any of these questions means that you need to take steps now so that those accounts are managed and shut down after your death.

If you’re not sure where to start, first, make a list of your digital assets. Next, determine which accounts should be closed and which should be given to others (frequent flyer miles, hotel points, etc.). Finally, follow the laws of your state on how to implement your wishes regarding your digital estate. If you already have a plan in place, be sure to add to it as you open new online accounts.

4. Does your will accurately reflect your current intentions?
If you have not revised your will in quite some time, you should make sure that the beneficiaries you wish to receive a gift from your estate are listed (and those that you no longer wish to support are removed). If you have included charitable organizations in your estate plan, are they the ones that you genuinely care about that have made a difference in your life? You should consider whether you wish to make a general gift or create a named fund for a specific purpose.

5. Have you provided for your favorite charities in your estate plan?
If you have, congratulations! Have you also informed the charities of your generous intentions? It is important to do so for the charities to be clear about your plans so they can implement your gift as you wish when it is received. It also allows them to thank you and for you to get to know those who will be implementing your estate gift.

If you have not yet included planned gifts for charitable organizations such as ours in your estate plan, there are many options available for you to leave a legacy to support our work. Some of them require little effort to implement, such as beneficiary designations in your IRA.

We would be happy to consult with you and help to implement your charitable objectives. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance in helping you achieve your philanthropic goals.