Trusted Ridgeland Attorneys
Building Relationships that Last a Lifetime
Estate Planning FAQs
What is Estate Planning?
It’s a plan for your assets, family and yourself, and it will cover death or incapacity. It’s important to cover incapacity. You’ll be not only deciding what happens to various properties and bank accounts but also who will care for you in the event you become incapacitated. We do that through powers of attorney and it’s critical that you make decisions about who will be in charge.
Do You Need an Estate Plan?
if you don’t have many assets? You need an estate plan if you have any assets. If you own a home, property, or bank accounts, you want to decide what happens to them and who runs your estate. Very importantly, in the event of incapacity, your estate plan should have powers of attorney for healthcare directives and general needs. And you absolutely want to be the person who decides who will be in charge.
What documents are included in a basic estate plan?
An estate plan is going to provide a will, a power of attorney for healthcare and a power of attorney for general needs, such as finances associated with various agencies and companies.
What’s the difference between a will and a Trust?
What is the difference between a will and a trust? A will is a formal written instrument that requires certain formalities. It will transfer property through the probate court after your death. It determines how your assets are distributed and who is in charge of your assets. However, you need to be the person who decides that. A trust is a written contract that is a comprehensive and lengthy document where we do a title transfer or a beneficiary designation, so at your death your assets are owned by the trust. Oftentimes we can avoid probate provided that all of your assets are transferred into the trust. It also provides for who handles your assets if you are incapacitated or pass away. A trust is important if you own properties in multiple states or have any complex situations.
Do I Need a Trust Or Is A Will Enough?
If you would like privacy of your documents, a trust doesn’t get filed in its entirety with the court. Probate filings are public, showing who is in charge and what assets are transferred. Privacy is very critical, especially in this digital age. The courts allow electronic filing, and the public can access that information. People want to keep those details private. If you own property in multiple states and want to avoid multiple administrations, a trust helps. Complicated circumstances can arise, such as the desire to provide for a special needs family member or someone with an addiction, which may require placing restrictions on the transfer. There are many more reasons, and that’s why Attorney Hancock suggests that you come in and have a consultation.
What Happens If I Die Without a Will?
If you pass away without a will, a similar proceeding to probate, called state administration, will occur. A petition is filed and it requires an extra step of determining your heirs by running a printed notice looking for unknown heirs. That takes a lot more time and is obviously more expensive. That’s why you need an estate plan so your heirs don’t have to go through those extra steps.
Update or Change Estate Plan Later?
Can you update or change your estate plan later? Yes, all the way up until you become incapacitated or you pass away. You should review your estate plan from time to time and make changes if necessary. Significant life events should trigger a review. Marriages, divorces, births, and deaths are significant life events. Moreover, review your beneficiaries and the people that you’ve entrusted to be your executor or trustee.
How Often Should You Review Your Estate Plan?
It is recommended that you review your estate plan every three to five years or when significant life events occur. Those events include births, deaths, marriages, divorces and any kind of change in your circumstances and assets.
What is Probate and Can It Be Avoided?
What is probate and can it be avoided? Probate is the process of proving a will to be true and valid. Probate oftentimes can be avoided through the use of a revocable living trust. It’s a document that requires a lot more time together. But we’re title transferring assets. You will remain in charge of those assets as trustee and whomever you’ve designated as successor will transfer those assets when the time comes.
What is Power of Attorney?
What is power of attorney? It is a legal document where you designate who is going to handle certain affairs, with alternatives. There’s one for healthcare, and there’s also a general durable power of attorney for general matters that aren’t healthcare. Every adult needs those powers of attorney at a minimum.
What is a Living Will?
Mississippi does not allow living wills anymore. Rather, the state allows durable power of attorney for healthcare, also known as an advanced directive. You direct who makes healthcare decisions for you in the event you can’t give informed consent on certain healthcare decisions. Your physician determines if you’re able to give informed consent. With your input, Attorney Hancock drafts a document with your wishes for things like life support, organ donation, surgeries, and things of that nature.
Who will make medical decisions if you’re incapacitated?
Who will make medical decisions for you if you’re incapacitated? Generally it will be your next of kin. However, depending on the facility, they may require a conservatorship be put into place and that is a formal proceeding through court where someone has to become appointed for you.
How Do You Protect Your Children?
How can you protect your children or dependents through estate planning? It is critical that you provide who the guardians of your minor children will be. You protect them by designating who will care for them, preventing a legal battle or their placement in the state system until a court can appoint a guardian. It also protects them in terms of the financial assets you’re leaving, as a minor child cannot inherit directly. So you designate who will be the trustee for those assets and how they will be distributed and when.
What Should You Bring to Your First Estate Planning Consultation?
What should you bring to your first estate planning meeting with Attorney Hancock? Firstly, you should bring a list of your assets and any questions you may have. You should also write down your goals so that we don’t miss talking about that. Start thinking about who will be in charge of your assets, who’s going to be your executor, and who’s going to have power of attorney. Also list alternates for these roles. You do not want your plan to become obsolete.
Probate & Estate Administration
What is an Estate Personal Representative?
An Estate Personal Tepresentative is the person who works with an estate attorney and seeks to administer the estate of the deceased. They are in charge of gathering the assets that are subject to probate, and they have a fiduciary duty to all of the heirs at law or the legatees under the will.