How to Prepare for Your First Estate Planning Appointment

If you have finally made an appointment to get started on your estate plan, you are to be congratulated. Your completed estate plan is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your loved ones and to yourself. Understandably, you may be a bit nervous about your appointment given that you have never met with an estate planning attorney. Although every consultation is unique, an Indianapolis attorney at Frank & Kraft offers some suggestions for how you can prepare for your first estate planning appointment.

Tips to Help You Prepare for Estate Planning

One of the many reasons you should work with an experienced estate planning attorney when creating or updating your estate plan is that your finalized plan should be uniquely tailored to achieve your goals and to meet your needs. As such, your first estate planning appointment will cover the things that are important to you and that apply to your life. To make you feel better prepared, there are some things you can do ahead of your estate planning appointment, such as:

• Decide on your estate planning goals. While every estate plan will provide for the distribution of assets after the death of the plan’s creator, there are many other goals that can also be achieved within your estate plan. For example, it may be important for your estate to avoid probate or plan for a special needs beneficiary. Take some time to decide what your goals are and prioritize those goals.
• Document your assets and debts. The more detailed information you include in your estate plan, the better for everyone involved. To ensure that those details are included in your plan, make a detailed list of all your assets and debts. Include things such as account numbers, locations, descriptions, and values. Your attorney can help you decide how much of this information needs to be included in your plan and where to include it.
• Decide who you need to provide for within your plan. While you may want to pass down assets to many people (or entities) in your estate plan, you need to start with the people for whom you need to provide financially. Typically, these are people who are financially dependent on you right now, such as your spouse and children. Once your plan covers the support of those people, you can move on to making gifts to people or entities that you want to inherit from your estate.
• Create a list of specific bequests. Specific bequests are gifts that are not part of a larger general gift. For instance, you may gift half of your estate to an adult child, but you want to gift a specific painting to a favorite niece. Specific bequests are often family heirlooms or gifts with sentimental value but can also be a home or a vehicle.
• Consider fiduciary roles. Even a simple estate plan has at least one fiduciary role in it. The Executor of your Will acts as a fiduciary while overseeing the probate of your estate. Other fiduciary roles include the Trustee of a trust, an Agent in a Power of Attorney, and a Guardian nominate to care for your children. Take your time choosing people for these roles as they serve important roles within your estate plan.
• Write down questions. It can be easy to forget important questions when you are actually at your appointment. With that in mind, start writing questions down as they occur to you so that you have a list when you arrive at your appointment.