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What is an Estate Plan?What are Wills & Trusts?
What is Incapacity Planning?
What is Special Needs Planning?
What is an Estate Plan?
The goal of an Estate Plan is to ensure your personal wishes for the protection and care of you and your loved ones are carried out during your lifetime and beyond. At its core, Estate Planning is determining to whom, how and when you will transfer the stewardship of your resources when you can no longer serve as the steward yourself.
Many people are familiar with a Last Will and the role it plays in distributing property upon death. Additional documents that may be important in your Estate Plan commonly include a Living Trust, a Power of Attorney and Health Care Directives. The proper combination of these documents allow your wishes regarding health care and financial matters to be carried out during your lifetime and beyond.
What are Wills and Trusts?
WillsA Last Will can ensure your wishes are followed for the distribution of your property to whom you choose and how you choose upon your death. A Last Will also appoints an executor to administer your estate upon your death. If you have minor children, your Last Will nominates the guardian for your children. If you do not express your wishes concerning your property in a will or a trust, the state of North Carolina will make the decisions for you according to its intestate succession laws. The North Carolina intestate laws are designed to distribute your assets to certain relatives in certain amounts. These laws do not take into account your personal wishes.
Living TrustsA Living Trust, also called a revocable trust, grantor trust or family trust, is a written legal document that sets forth your wishes and plans for matters during your lifetime and upon your death. A Living Trust is similar to a Last Will in that it determines who will receive, and how they will receive, your assets upon your death but it is not a substitute for a Last Will because a Living Trust does not appoint a guardian for minor children or an executor to administer your estate.
In recent years, Living Trusts have increased in popularity among people of all ages and income brackets who want to decrease probate costs and avoid the delays associated with probate. While probate avoidance may be of importance to some, a Living Trust has a very important benefit that is less well known in that it allows you to manage your personal care, health care and your assets during a disability or illness.
The kind of property you have, the amount of property you have and the plans you have for yourself and your family are all important factors in determining if a Living Trust should be part of your Estate Plan.
What is Incapacity Planning?
Power of AttorneyA Financial Power of Attorney appoints the person you designate to handle all your financial affairs. The person should be someone you trust because he or she will make and carry out all decisions related to your finances. A Financial Power of Attorney may become effective immediately on the day you sign it, or it may become effective at a future date when certain criteria are met related to your inability to manage your own financial affairs.
Health Care Advance DirectivesA Health Care Power of Attorney appoints the person you designate to make decisions related to your health care at those times that you are unable to communicate your health care decisions. In addition, the Health Care Power of Attorney provides the opportunity to record your wishes regarding organ donation, burial or cremation, mental health treatment and decisions related to personal care such as independent living facilities and hospice facilities.
A Living Will expresses your wishes and instructs your doctor as to whether your life should be extended or life-prolonging measures should be withheld in certain medical situations.
An Authorization for Use and Disclosure of Protected Health Information, also known as a HIPAA Release, allows you to designate the persons to whom your protected health information can be released.
What is Special Needs Planning?
If you have a child or loved one who will inherit from you and the child has a disability that qualifies, or may qualify, him for needs-based government benefits, it is critical that your estate plan include provisions that preserve the child's eligibility for benefits upon the receipt of an inheritance. A properly drafted Special Needs Trust is the tool that permits a disabled beneficiary to receive an inheritance without disqualifying the beneficiary from public benefits.
In addition, if your child who has a disability has reached the age of 18 and has the capacity to understand his or her actions, we highly recommend your child have a Financial Power of Attorney and Health Care Advance Directive. These documents give the person designated by the child the authority to act on behalf of your child when needed. In addition, we recommend that your child have a HIPAA Release. The Release gives the people chosen by your child access to his or her protected health information. Without these documents, if your child is incapable of making his or her own health care or financial decisions, and you wish to make those decisions for your child, a formal court process known as guardianship must be completed.
