Estate Planning for Young Families

If you have minor children or if you are expecting your first child, add a basic Will and related documents to your list of things to do. Your Will allows you to name guardians who will care for your minor children if both you and your spouse are deceased. Equally important, you can provide a trust within your Will to manage assets for your kids until they reach an appropriate age. In the absence of such a trust, the Court will require the creation of a guardianship to manage the assets; this requires cumbersome reporting and unnecessary Court fees and the guardianship terminates at age 18, providing the child with all the money at that early age. A trust allows you to delay the ultimate distribution to ensure that the child reaches a more appropriate maturity level before taking control of a large amount of assets (e.g. 25 or 30 years old). In addition to your Will, you will need a Financial Power of Attorney and Health Power of Attorney to name someone to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated.

My process for working with young families is very straightforward. We usually start with a phone conference, video conference or office meeting. I will gather information about your family and your assets and we will discuss the basic documents I recommend and the decisions you will need to make. The most important decision for you to consider is which individuals will serve in the different fiduciary roles such as guardian trustee etc. Next I will prepare draft documents and email them to you for review. We can discuss questions or changes you have through email or phone conference. Finally we will set a time to sign the final documents in one of my office locations or possibly in your office or advisors office, whatever is most convenient.