The Importance of Planning Your Estate (No Matter Who You Are)
No matter who you are, plan your estate. Whether you have achieved great financial and material success, are struggling to make ends meet, or are somewhere in between, planning your estate is something you should do! Take it from us, Armah Financial has provided estate planning in Westport, CT to help many individuals secure their family’s future.
What is Estate Planning?
Estate planning is essentially the arrangement of your affairs in the event that you should pass on. An estate can be defined as everything you own; your home, properties, vehicles, bank accounts in your name, insurance policies, and other possessions.
Without estate planning, many families are put in an uncomfortable position of grieving their loss while dealing with the uncertainty about what is available and what goes where. At a time when family members and loved ones need to support one another, this lack of estate planning can lead to arguments and family fractures.
Estate Planning Isn’t Just for the Wealthy
A misconception about estate planning is that it is something that only wealthy people need to concern themselves with. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! Ask yourself, what does wealth mean to you? At what point are you considered “wealthy”?
What wealth have you built? Is it a business? A family home? Heirlooms restored? Traditions and customs? What were you given in this life?
Wealth is a mindset, not a number in an account.
It is important to meaningfully pass your wealth on to where YOU feel it belongs as opposed to letting courts and attorneys impersonally make those decisions.
No matter where you are along the spectrum of material success, you need to delegate what will happen to your total assets when you are gone.
Plan Your Affairs Sooner than Later (or too late)
Many people avoid writing a will or planning their estate because it is viewed as a morbid activity. However, death is a fact of life, why should we not plan our contingencies for this eventuality?
There is a belief that in our old age with a steady hand we will pen a will or get our affairs in order amidst our loving family. However, like most things we put off for the future, they tend to go undone, and there is no assurance we will be physically and mentally able to engage in this important activity. Most people mean to do something about what will happen to their estate should they pass, but far too many people do not get around to it. In 2017, approximately 4 in 10 US adults had a will. Something worth exploring in a separate post is how COVID has impacted estate planning.
Estate Planning Saves Your Family Money
Intestacy is when a person passes on without having a will or plan for their estate. Such a person is considered intestate. Intestacy is a costly condition for your estate to be in. When you lack an official plan for your estate and you pass on, the courts have to arrange for the proper legal authorities to decide what to do with your assets and belongings.
Naturally, the cost of these services are taken from the estate and once you are gone you have no control over those numbers. It would be a shame for your children or loved ones to lose an unnecessary amount from their inheritance for such a trivial reason.
A proper estate plan can also potentially greatly reduce the amount of taxes that are required to be paid by the heirs.
Estate Planning in Westport, CT with Armah Financial
Armah Financial is here to help with estate planning in Westport, CT. We don’t just help our clients with financial planning, we focus on what really matters—understanding how our financial planning intersects with our emotional, social, and familial wellbeing.
Contact Armah Financial today so that we can discuss your unique circumstances and the best course of action to securing your future.