As an estate planning attorney, it’s my job to prepare people for the unthinkable. I help my clients ensure that if something happens to them, their affairs will be in order and their children will be cared for the way they want, by the people they want, no matter what. Simply put, it’s my job to give people peace of mind.
Despite that, I could not give myself peace of mind in the wake of Irma. I was totally unprepared to deal with a hurricane. As of Wednesday before the storm hit, I had no storm shutters, no bottled water, and not even a working flashlight. In a panic, my husband rushed to the hardware store for supplies while I spent the morning frantically planning our evacuation vacation. After several trips to three different hardware stores and waiting in line for hours for plywood and gas, we somehow managed to board up the house and pack our clothes and important belongings. Like thieves in the night, we stole our kids from their beds and made our way to Tennessee hours before the light of dawn on Thursday.
During that very long drive, it occurred to me that our last minute scrambling wasn’t all that different from what I have seen so many families go through after the death of a loved one. Too often, grieving families are left scouring the house to find a Will, accounts, bills, anything - all while having to make funeral arrangements and entertain out-of- town guests. And to make matters worse, when a family is faced with no estate plan in place, they simply don’t know where to begin. Death is an ugly, messy business. If you want to make things as easy as possible for your family in the event something happens to you, then you need to have an estate plan.
Dealing with a storm like Hurricane Irma gives us pause to reflect on our lives, families, and safety plans, and is an opportunity to think not only about storm preparation but also how those preparations relate to estate planning. Your safety plan should include estate planning – the ultimate form of disaster readiness – because it spells out exactly what will happen if you die or become incapacitated.
Your estate plan contains several documents to help you.
- If you become injured a cannot make your own decisions, your durable power of attorney, living will, and health care directives provide instructions on how to deal with your finances and medical care, and name agents who will carry out those instructions on your behalf.
- Your Last Will and Testament dictates how your property and assets will be distributed upon your death. A Will, however, will not keep your family out of Probate Court. This is why many people choose to also include a Living Revocable Trust in their estate plan. A Trust is the best way to avoid the expensive, long, and public probate process.
- Finally, if you have minor children, your plan will specify who will care for your children, who will manage their inheritance until they are old enough to manage it themselves, and other important decisions pertaining to them.
Once you have an estate plan in place make sure you put it, along with all of your other important documents, in a fireproof safe and preferably in a waterproof container. Other important documents should consist of your insurance policies, birth certificates, marriage certificates, passports, property deeds, car titles, banking and other asset information, and tax records. Also be sure to make copies and scan documents to your hard drive.
While people sometimes choose to keep important documents in a safety deposit box, it is not a good place to keep a Will. This is because upon your death, an original Will must be produced in Court. If your Will is in a safety deposit box, and nobody other than the decedent is authorized to access the safety deposit box, it is very difficult to get the Will and may even require a court order.
So before the next disaster strikes, whether it be it a hurricane, illness, or accident, give yourself the peace of mind of knowing that you prepared to the best of your ability. If you don’t already have an estate plan in place, put it on your to-do list and make sure you actually check it off your list. Estate planning is one of the most postponed “I’ll get to it” items on people’s lists. At the eleventh hour, the last thing you want to be worrying about is paperwork and estate documents.
