Horror stories aside, here are some considerations when setting up an estate plan, from Julie Ann Garber, an estate planning lawyer in Key West, who writes articles for the Web site About.com. For more information, in addition to consulting your attorney, check out Garber's Wills and Estate Planning blog at wills.about.com, or e-mail her at wills.guide(at)about.com.
-- Control of your assets while you're alive and well. You want to have an estate plan in place that gives you total access to, and control over, your property while you're alive and well. This won't be the case if your assets are jointly titled with someone other than your spouse or if you fail to follow through on the terms of a property settlement agreement after a divorce.
-- Control of your assets while you're mentally disabled. Should you become mentally incapacitated without a disability plan, your assets will end up in a court-supervised guardianship or conservatorship and you and your family will lose total control. Disability planning includes taking care of both you and your property in the event that you can't take care of yourself due to an injury or illness.
-- Control of your assets after your death. An estate plan should ensure that your property will go to whom you want, when you want and in the way you want. The alternative is to allow the state where you live at the time of your death to make your estate plan for you. Instead, put an estate plan in place that passes your property on to the beneficiaries you choose to inherit your assets and then, if necessary, protects the inherited assets from the beneficiaries themselves, their spouses, their children and outside influences.
-- Control of the costs associated with settling your estate. Minimize the financial and emotional costs associated with settling your estate by avoiding probate, planning to minimize estate taxes and planning for the payment of estate taxes. Otherwise, it will be the government and the lawyers who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of your estate.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
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