You have acquired things through the years that are dear and precious to you. They don’t have to be large or expensive to mean something to you. With estate planning, you can decide who gets your belongings in the event you pass away or become incapacitated. Estate planning also determines who will take over your responsibilities.

1. Inventory Your Things

Most people think they don’t have a lot to inventory until they start considering what they have. Even if you have a t-shirt or baseball card collection, you will want to keep an inventory of these items and other things, such as coins, art, vehicles, property, homes, savings, health savings accounts, 401(k) plans, business ownership and anything else you own or have ownership of. All the things you list make up your estate.

2. Consider Your Family’s Needs

After you have listed everything in your estate, you need to consider how you want to keep these items protected and how to look after your family after you have passed. You might want to look into life insurance to ensure your family will be financially okay. If you have children, you should establish a guardian and a backup guardian to take care of your children. Be sure to detail how you want your children raised.

3. Establish Your Directives

You need to establish your medical care directive, which is known as a “living will.” This details your medical care wishes in the event you can’t make decisions for yourself. This can also be done by establishing a medical power of attorney.

Consider creating a revocable living trust. You can establish a trustee to take care of your matters, whether you’d like part of your estate to go to others in the event you are incapacitated or ill. When you pass, your assets would then go to the beneficiaries and bypass probate. Visit this website if you need guidance for probate.

Establish other directives, such as a durable financial power of attorney to manage your financial affairs or a limited power of attorney to handle anything else you wish. Consider guidance for estate administration as well.

4. Consider Your Beneficiaries

Make sure to update all of your life insurance, insurance accounts, and retirement beneficiaries. You might be remarried or otherwise need to name new beneficiaries, even if you have these otherwise established in your will. You shouldn’t leave any of the beneficiary sections blank. You should also consider naming contingent beneficiaries in case something happens to the primary beneficiaries.

5. Get Professional Estate Planning Help

There are other matters you need to think about, such as minimizing inheritance and estate taxes. You might need to create a supplemental needs trust. In addition, you may need to update the above-mentioned documents, directives, beneficiaries and such. With so much to consider, you should seek guidance for estate administration.

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