When you are young with a new family, your estate plan typically focuses on protecting and providing for your children if something happens to you. By the time you reach your âGolden Years,â however, your estate planning goals will likely have changed. If you are comfortably into your retirement years, an important focus of your estate plan should now be protecting and providing for your spouse when you are gone. With that in mind, the Essex Junction elder law attorneys at Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC explain how to prepare your estate for a surviving spouse.
Does Your Estate Plan Financially Protect Your Surviving Spouse?
Throughout your lifetime, your financial picture has likely changed significantly. Now that you are in your retirement years, it will likely change once again. You may now be relying on Social Security and retirement accounts for income instead of on wages or salary. In addition, you may have sold assets in an attempt to simply your financial holdings. To make sure that your spouse is protected when you are gone, make sure you review your existing estate plan and make any necessary changes. Make sure you understand the rules regarding inherited IRAs and other retirement accounts, Social Security surviving spouse benefits, and other applicable rules and laws. If you have children with your spouse, now is the time to decide how much of your estate should be distributed directly to your surviving spouse and how much (if any) will be passed down to your children. If you have children with someone other than your spouse, talk to your estate planning attorney about how to make sure assets intended for those beneficiaries are protected.
Does Your Estate Plan Protect your Surviving Spouse If You Become Incapacitated?
The harsh reality is that the longer you live the better the odds are that you will become incapacitated prior to your death. If that happens, you need to protect yourself and your spouse. One way to do that is to execute an advance directive. A Living Will is one type of advance directive that lets you make important healthcare decisions now to ensure that your wishes are honored if you are unable to make those decisions in the future. Executing a Living Will also avoids putting your surviving spouse in the position of having to make end-of-life decisions for you.
Probate and Your Surviving Spouse
Another important thing you can do to protect your surviving spouse is to incorporate probate avoidance tools and strategies into your estate plan. Not only can probate be costly and expensive, but your surviving spouse may also have to wait until probate is concluded to receive assets intended for him/her. Converting assets to non-probate assets is one way to decrease your estateâs need for formal probate. For example, transferring assets into a living trust means that those assets will bypass probate and may be passed down to your surviving spouse immediately after your death.
Do You Have a Funeral Plan?
You may not want to spend much time contemplating your own funeral and burial; however, if you do not do so, your surviving spouse will have to do it after you are gone. By including a funeral plan in your estate plan, you remove the burden of making difficult decisions and finding funds from your surviving spouse. A funeral trust lets you make decisions yourself and can arrange for payment of funeral costs, so your spouse does not need to worry about the financial aspect of your funeral. An additional advantage to creating a funeral plan is that doing so ensures that your wishes will be honored after you are gone.
Do You Need Help Protecting a Surviving Spouse in Your Estate Plan?
For more information, please attend one of our upcoming FREE webinars. If you have questions or concerns about how to prepare your estate for a surviving spouse, contact an experienced Essex Junction elder law attorney at Unsworth LaPlante, PLLC by calling 802-879-7133 to schedule your appointment today.
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