what is ESTATE planning?
Your death or incapacity can be a very difficult time for the ones you love and can greatly impact them. You can save them from the confusion, stress, and anxiety over what to do, and from the pressure of making quick decisions concerning your affairs, by taking care of them in advance through estate planning. This will allow those you care about to save their energy for processing the situation, grieving, taking care of themselves, and supporting each other.
Estate planning is a master plan to determine what happens to your assets and obligations under various circumstances. Your master plan can range from strategies that are simple and inexpensive to a more expensive and complex plan depending on the size of your estate.
When living, estate planning determines:
- How to manage, grow and preserve your personal wealth.
- How to limit taxes on your estate now and at the time of death.
When incapacitated or at death, estate planning establishes:
- What your health care preferences are.
- How your assets and personal property will be handled.
- Who will have custody of your minor children and/or pets, if any.
- Who your Beneficiaries will be.
- What types of Power of Attorney are in place, and who will be the Agent(s).
- Who will be the Executor of your estate and oversee the terms of your Will.
- What types of Trust(s) to use, if any, and who will be the Trustee(s).
- Where all your important information is stored.
If you would like further information surrounding probate and estate planning, this following handbook prepared by the State of Minnesota is helpful. While this handbook provides you with some additional background information, please keep in mind that when this handbook reflects specific Minnesota probate law information it could be different than probate laws in other states.
This content is intended to be used as a source for general information and is not provided as legal advice.
