Estate planning is what a person engages in while they are making out a last will and testament. They determine what will happen to all of the assets they own and who will benefit from such assets. Therefore, estate planning is extremely important, if you want to leave specific individuals your assets, like your home, your vehicle(s) or any form of money, you will need to write a legal will and indicate your selected beneficiaries. There are several steps you will need to take in order to cover all the bases.
Next, you will need to speak to a lawyer that handles wills and estates about writing up your will. A lawyer can assist you with all the legalities and can advise you of what you can and cannot do in terms of planning the distribution of your assets. You can find a lawyer easily enough using your telephone directory or you can find one on the Internet.
Illinois estate planning attorney, Christopher D. Dwyer, operates one of the premier estate law firms in Chicago area as an asset protection attorney with a concentration on business counseling, wills, trusts and probate. Chris now owns and runs his own law firm and is dedicated to providing personal service with the same degree of expertise that he employed at the large Chicago estate law firms. He is personally invested in his clients’ success and provides a hands-on approach to each client’s legal needs. He understands both the legal and personal aspects of your business affairs. His clients come from all walks of life, throughout the state of Illinois, across the nation and around the world.
After you have located a lawyer, you will sit down with the attorney and go through any documentation pertaining to your assets. At this time, you may also want to consider the possibility of creating a Power of Attorney, a statement giving control of your assets to your pre-selected individual if something should happen to you while you are still living and you, for whatever reason, cannot speak for yourself. Also, you may want to consider creating a Health Care Proxy, letting whoever is in charge when you can’t be, decide the type of hospital treatment you would prefer.
Finally, during the process of creating a will, you may want to establish one or more trust funds, referred to as “discretionary trusts” to those individuals that may be too young to manage any assets you give them in the event of your death.