Myths About Estate Planning — New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog — November 21, 2024
The biggest myth about estate planning is the idea that you can do everything yourself online. This assumes that a Trust is a generic document where you can plug in names, address and amounts you wish to give and off you go! The majority of time we spend with our clients is spent discussing the social aspects of their estate plan. First, who will be responsible for your financial and legal decisions in the event of disability or death? One person or multiple people? Should they act together or separately? What will the other family members think of these choices? Who gets along well with whom? What are my options, and what have other people done and why? You need to be in a position to evaluate pros and cons and there’s no counselling on the internet.
Getting an estate plan from out-of-state is fraught with other pitfalls. Take, for instance, the New York power of attorney form. Even trained lawyers make mistakes when drafting and executing New York’s complex form of power. What are the chances that a layperson will get it right? Why? This is because online estate planning doesn’t address protecting assets against the high cost of long-term health care, whether at home or in an institution. This involves planning with a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) — only available from an experienced elder law firm and not from the internet.
Consider this. The chance of your house catching fire in a given year is one in 3000. Who doesn’t have homeowner’s coverage every year? On the other hand the mortality rate has remained at 100 percent. Your estate plan is a worthwhile insurance that will pay off one day. You only pay once and not every year.
