Most people have been told that they need an estate plan, that it’s a smart thing to have.
But what exactly is estate planning?
Why is it important to have an estate plan?
Those are great questions, Dear Reader. And I could talk about them for hours… But not in this post. In this post, I want to give you the short-and-sweet answers.
How Do You Define Estate Planning?
Estate planning is an immensely broad topic.
It includes everything from probate avoidance to asset protection, from tax planning to insurance policies, and from family law to business formation.
But estate planning can be boiled down to a simple definition:
An estate plan ensures that the right people are able to care for your SELF in the event you become incapacitated and that the right people are able to get your STUFF in the event of your death.
That’s it.
An estate plan is concerned with answering two main questions: (1) Who do you want to make decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself? and (2) Who do you want to get your assets when you die?