Estate Planning Checklist

Estate planning is an important task for adults of all ages. It’s never too early to start thinking about your wishes for your assets and your estate overall, from your home and the belongings within it to your kids, finances and everything else that encompasses your life. Arizona estate planning requires a considerable amount of thought into how you want your estate to be administered upon your passing. Utilize an estate planning checklist to create this plan for your situation, and to ensure that you haven’t overlooked any important elements of your estate:

Consult with an estate planning attorney or professional: This professional can consult with you about your wishes and provide you with elements to consider that you may not have thought of on your own. Moreover, they can discuss Arizona estate planning laws and regulations and give you a clear idea of what you can and cannot do in estate planning.

Create a will: This document gives your loved ones a road map to your wishes, so that they are clear about what you want done with your estate. You can create this document with the same professional you are using to guide you through the estate planning process. However, if you desire, you can also write it up yourself and file it with your municipality and leave a copy with an attorney as well as in your home, where it can be found easily.

Create a living will: Different from a traditional will, this document gives your loved ones an idea of what you want done in the event that you can no longer make health decisions for yourself. This designates someone to make those important decisions on your behalf and also provides directions on the manner in which you would want health decisions made for you. This includes decisions such as whether or not you would want extraordinary measures taken to save your life.

Put together a durable power of attorney: This document allows someone to take over your finances in the event that you become incapacitated and are no longer able to do it on your own. You can go ahead and put this document together now and if it is a durable power of attorney, it will last well into your later years.

Draft an instructional letter regarding your wishes: This is the letter to your family and friends that explains your wishes for your Arizona estate planning and details why you made some of the decisions that you did. This is essentially your chance to say good-bye to your loved ones.

Designate an estate administrator: Designate the most responsible person in your life to administer your estate. It needs to be someone that you can trust to do the right thing with your estate and will step up during your family’s time of grief.

If you can check off the items on this checklist, you will be just that much further along in creating an Arizona estate planning portfolio that will ensure that all of your wishes are followed in the event of your death.

Need Help?

If you are not sure as to what legal document you currently have contact one of our professionals to help you with your estate planning. They will make sure you have all of your grounds covered and have the right legal documents that best suite your wants and needs.