Whenever I get up and speak about estate planning the first question I always ask the crowd is “who here has an estate plan?”

Usually about a third of the hands go up.

I let that sink in for a while (because we all know we need one) and then break the bad news to them…

They are wrong. EVERYONE HAS AN ESTATE PLAN.

Whether you have formally created a power of attorney, medical power of attorney, health care directive, and will (or any of the other more comprehensive documents) or not, you actually do have an estate plan.

The only question is, are you the one that created it or did the government create it for you?

Did you choose your power of attorney, the person who would take care of your financial life (and the person who would take care of your kids in the short-term), or will the government appoint someone that you don’t even know (that you have to pay)?

Did you choose your medical power of attorney, or are you going to default to the state’s hierarchy of people empowered to make life and death decisions for you?

Did you name the long-term guardians in your will to ensure the people you want to raise your kids will, or are you going to leave that decision up to a judge that doesn’t know anything about you, your values, what’s important to you, or who your family members REALLY are (there seem to always be people in a family who appear to be great choices from the outside looking in but would be a terrible choice of guardian).

These are the kinds of decisions you are leaving up to people that don’t know you and don’t know the people in your family.

If you’re okay with that, that’s fine.

But just know you are making a choice when you do nothing.

If you want to learn more about this, give me a call.

Cheers.

Christopher Small

If you have any more questions or think you might want some help, click the link below to schedule a phone or in person strategy session. Looking forward to it! https://cmslawfirm.com/scheduleasession