What Is Estate Planning?

Excellent question, tiny puppy. “Estate planning” sounds like something that should involve mansions and complicated trusts. It doesn’t. Estate planning is deciding what you want to happen if you can’t make decisions for yourself, and what you want to happen to your stuff after you die.

And you probably have more “stuff” than you think. Your house, bank accounts, retirement accounts, car, life insurance, furniture and jewelry. Your “stuff” includes things with financial value and the things that probably aren’t worth much to anyone except the people who love you. But estate planning isn’t just about your stuff after you’re gone. It’s also about you while you’re alive.

What Questions Does an Estate Plan Answer?

A good estate plan answers questions like:

🏡 Who gets the things I own when I die?

💰 Who handles the money and paperwork after I’m gone?

🏥 Who makes medical decisions for me if I can’t make them myself?

📋 Who can manage my finances or handle other important matters for me if I become incapacitated?

👧 Who do I want to care for my minor children if I die?

🐶 And yes, who takes care of my dog?

You may already know the answers to these questions. The problem is that knowing what you want isn’t the same thing as having an estate plan.

Estate Planning Takes the Answers Out of Your Head

Imagine something happens tomorrow and you can’t speak for yourself. Your family may know you incredibly well. But do they know exactly whom you wanted making your medical decisions? Does that person actually have the legal authority to do make those decisions? Does someone have authority to access your accounts and pay your bills? And after you die, does your family know exactly what you wanted to happen to everything you owned? 

Maybe they do. Maybe they think they do. Those are two very different things. A good estate plan takes your decisions out of your head and puts them into legally enforceable documents so the people you love aren’t left trying to figure out what you would have wanted.

What Documents Are Part of an Estate Plan?