Dying and death are inevitable – and the sooner you can accept that, the better the results of your trust planning with a professional planner will be. Keep in mind, too, that making your final arrangements for your end-of-life phase is not just about making the transition easier for your family but also making it easier for yourself.
With effective trust planning, you can designate authorized representatives who will make the difficult decisions about your medical care, assets, and celebration of life during your funeral, among others. Think of it as taking more control in a situation where you may be unable to fully exercise it due to physical or mental reasons.
Here are the things that must be in your to-do list for effective trust planning, thus, contributing to your greater enjoyment of your twilight years.
#1 Write a Will
When you die without a will in place, you are effectively letting others, perhaps even complete strangers, make important decisions affecting your wife, children and estate. The law will usually step in to divide your estate, which may or may not work in favor of your family and comply with your verbal wishes.
Why let such distressful things happen to your family when you can write a will? This is the first part of effective trust planning. You should talk to professionals about your will including updates to it, such as in the birth of another child in the family.
#2 Consider Life insurance
Yet another crucial part of trust planning is getting life insurance. Keep in mind that unless you have sufficient savings in the bank and investments in the market to support your family, a life insurance in your name and with your family members as beneficiaries is a must.
Your family’s living expenses should still be met even when you have passed on to the great beyond. The death benefits from life insurance will cover most, if not all, of these costs. You should discuss with your trust planning adviser about the amount of death benefits necessary for your beneficiaries to pay off your debts and provide them with money to sustain their lifestyle.
Trust planning should be done with three crucial end-of-life documents designed to delegate control about your wishes in case you cannot make the decisions for yourself. These documents in trust planning are a power of attorney, a release of information form, and advance directives.