1. “I’m too young.”

First of all, you are never too young to have an estate plan. I wrote a series of articles specifically geared toward estate planning for Millennials. (Or you can substitute “Millennials” for “Gen Z” or whatever weird thing we are on now.)

Whenever young people say “I don’t have enough assets for an estate plan” or “I’m going to wait until I have a family,” what they are really saying is, “I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.” Because young people don’t die, they live forever.

1. Will the right people get my “stuff”?

First, make sure your will or trust correctly states who will inherit your assets.

You should then review your pay-on-death (POD) beneficiaries on insurance policies, retirement accounts, and other assets.

Do they match the beneficiaries in your will or trust?

Many people incorrectly believe that a legal document such as a will or a trust controls what happens to all of their assets.

However, beneficiary designations can override those documents.

For example: Your trust may say that your son John will receive your entire estate and that you are disinheriting your other son, David.

But if your insurance policy lists David as beneficiary, he will still get part of your estate.

You should therefore coordinate your beneficiary designations with your will or trust to make sure all of your assets are distributed the way you want.

Last Will and Testament vs. Living Will

Before diving into specifics, it’s first helpful to know how to define estate planning:

An estate plan ensures (1) that the right people are able to care for your SELF in the event you become incapacitated and (2) that the right people are able to get your STUFF in the event of your death.

Every estate planning tool fits into one of those two categories, and a good estate plan should address both areas of focus.

And as luck would have it, I will be discussing both categories in this post.

David Postic

November 19, 2018

Estate Planning

What is a Last Will and Testament?

David Postic

November 19, 2018

Estate Planning

Remember that scene in The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo a red pill or a blue pill?

Morpheus (a Yoda-like figure) tells Neo (the Luke Skywalker of the movie, as it were) that the reality he had been living in was a lie. (I like Star Wars a lot.)

He then offers Neo two pills — one red, one blue — and tells him that if he takes the blue pill, he will wake up tomorrow and go on with life as usual. But if he takes the red pill, he will “wake up” (both literally and figuratively) and learn just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

The catch? If Neo takes the red pill, he can never go back to the way things were. You can’t close Pandora’s Box once it has been opened.

Needless to say, Neo takes the red pill and proceeds to become the Chosen One and kill robots for three movies. It’s great.

I often think of that scene when someone asks me a question about estate planning. Because that rabbit hole is pretty deep, folks. And I’m an attorney, so there’s always a chance you won’t be able to shut that Pandora’s Box.

But for you, I’ll do my best to keep things short and sweet.

In my last blog post, I talked about trusts: what they are, what they do, why you should have one. I also spent some time discussing how trusts are different than wills. So now, given that comparison, it only seems fair that I talk about wills.

David Postic

November 13, 2018

Estate Planning

15 Best Personal Finance Blogs

David Postic

November 13, 2018

Estate Planning

I once had a client who asked me to create a comprehensive estate plan, the whole package: trust, will, power of attorney, etc. It was exactly what she needed.

So I drafted the documents, she signed them. She died about a year later.

At this point, you may be thinking, “But good thing she had estate planning documents, though, right?” There was just one problem:

There was no money left in the estate for the heirs.

My client spent all this time and thought and money for a great estate plan that was ultimately (essentially) useless because she spent all her money.

Most people want an estate plan primarily to make it easier for their loved ones to get the property you leave them. But if you don’t have any property to leave, then the plan doesn’t do much.

The point is this: Estate planning is much broader than simply creating legal documents that pass on your “stuff.” It also involves creating a financial plan to make sure you have “stuff” to pass on.

David Postic

November 7, 2018

Estate Planning

What is a Trust?

David Postic

November 7, 2018

Estate Planning

Life is super confusing.

We literally get dumped into this big world full of complicated things like taxes and etiquette and lawn care, and we’re just supposed to know exactly what to do?

My adulthood has been a constant stream of realizing that I misunderstood basic concepts about life that everyone else apparently already knew. Actually that was my childhood, too. So it’s been my whole life. For example:

When I was younger, there was a good stretch of time when I thought “Watergate” was just another word for a dam. Like, a literal gate for water. A water gate.

But whenever I heard people use “Watergate” in conversation, I got this impression that it was not a good thing. As a result, for a few while I assumed that dams were somehow really bad things but had no idea why.

I eventually figured out what Watergate really was; however, that was by no means the last time I misunderstood something. Learning is great and also sometimes embarrassing.

Many people have similar misunderstandings about estate planning. For instance, clients often think their modest assets do not warrant a living trust. After all, aren’t “trust fund babies” supposed to be wealthy? Isn’t a will good enough for me?

Approximately 1 of every 2 clients I talk to doesn’t know exactly what a trust does or how it is different than a will. That is a mostly made up statistic based on the last few client meetings I could remember off the top of my head. I’m not saying it’s not true. I just don’t have the hard data…

But here is a very real statistic: only 42% of U.S. adults currently have a will or a trust. That’s crazy! Part of that is due to the fact that wills and trusts are complex, hard-to-understand documents. And attorneys usually don’t make it much easier.

That’s why I thought I would take the time to explain just what the heck a trust really is.

David Postic

October 22, 2018

Estate Planning

What is "Funding" My Trust and How Do I Do It?

David Postic

October 22, 2018

Estate Planning

What is "Funding" My Trust and How Do I Do It?

So you’ve created a living trust. Awesome. You are super responsible. Spectacular. Your estate is so planned. Excellent.

Reveling in your excellence, you may be thinking to yourself, “You did a great job, Self. You are so responsible, and your estate plan (which is very much planned) is good to go!”

But guess what? Yourself would be wrong.

Is my trust useless?

When you sign a trust document, you just have some sheets of paper. It may be fancy paper — and it’s definitely expensive paper — but it’s still just paper. And paper alone (usually) does not avoid probate. In other words: By itself, a signed trust can be pretty useless.

Think of a trust like a box. When you sign the trust, you have an empty box. To avoid probate, you want to fill that box with all your “stuff,” your assets. Anything that’s in the box at your death doesn’t have to go through probate. Anything that’s not in the box at your death does.

David Postic

September 26, 2018

Estate Planning

Estate Planning for Entrepreneurs

David Postic

September 26, 2018

Estate Planning

As an entrepreneur, your life is often consumed by your business. But have you stopped to consider what would happen to your business if you are injured?

If you come down with an illness?

If you suddenly die?

Entrepreneurs who fail to create an estate plan leave their life’s work at risk of being torn apart or lost entirely after they are gone. To keep that from happening, here are a few estate planning documents every entrepreneur should consider:

1. “I’m too young.”

1. Will the right people get my “stuff”?

Last Will and Testament vs. Living Will

Is my trust useless?

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