Estate Planning Documents You Need
You can do any combination of documents with our estate plan.
There are different documents that you might use depending on what your goals are and what your needs are.
Normally we would encourage you to have a comprehensive estate plan with all of the necessary documents, but I do understand that different life circumstances being what they are, you might not be able to complete all of the documents in one session.
And a lot of times people will ask me, “What documents do I need today? Which documents are the most important and what are the different documents for?“
Last Will and Testament
The basic documents that we include in our estate planning package are the will itself, which is the last will and testament that explains exactly how you want all of your property to be distributed after you pass away and who you want your property to be left to.
In the state of North Carolina, if you die without a will, typically the state statutes will determine who exactly is entitled to your property and it may or may not be who you think it is and it may or may not be who you want the property to go to. So it’s really important that you create this document that ensures your wishes are followed, that your wishes are made clear, and that you tell your loved ones you have the documents so that they can make sure your wishes are carried out.
Powers of Attorney
The other documents that we include in our estate planning package are to be used typically while you’re still alive and those are our powers of attorney.
There’s a power of attorney for healthcare and there’s a power of attorney that we use for finances.
- Durable Power of Attorney: Is for finances or signing documents.
- Healthcare Power of Attorney: For healthcare decisions. If you’re in the hospital or if you’re under medical care and you can no longer make your wishes clear as far as what you want to be done on your behalf.
Living Will
There’s also a living will, or an advanced directive, that explains exactly what type of care you would like for your end of life care.
Get Help With Your Estate Plan
To what extent and degree you want that care carried out and all of those documents we can discuss in-depth at a meeting and I can explain to you how they might work in your situation. If you have a particular need for one over the other, we can determine that in our meeting.