Young Individuals Seem to Believe Life is Endless:
Young members of society are constantly focused on the present and the upcoming near future. It is highly unlikely that a 30 year old has begun planning for his potential death. In fact, many young individuals follow the cliche statement “Live everyday as if it were your last” because life is too short to consider the consequences of every action. Most young people believe that this is just the beginning and they have their entire lives ahead of them. Most young Americans focus on monetary values as a priority, especially purchasing cars, estates, and items of great value. Seeming as these individuals are so wrapped up about their plans for the present or the very near future, they do not consider the reality of the situation. In truth, anything can happen to anyone at any moment and there is no way of knowing exactly when that will take place. Life is not endless, as accidents, health conditions, or any other aspect of life can occur without any warning sign. This is exactly what happened to the former Zappos CEO Tony Hseieh who died intestate because he never considered the possibility that he could die at such a young age. Due to the fact that he did not begin planning early for his future, he did not have a will set in place. This means that his wishes and best interests were not clearly stated, nor did he have a power of attorney, or a trust set up. Despite being extremely wealthy and young, life’s turn of events prevented him from making decisions that would best represent his interests in terms of what actions should take place after his passing. Regardless of his title, socio-economic status, and age he must still go through the typical process associated with dying without a will. This implies that the court could potentially make decisions that would have countered his original wishes, simply because he did not have these wishes physically expressed in a legal document. There would be nothing worse than working extremely hard just to afford to purchase your dream estate and build a large asset, just to have the state distribute it all in a manner that the court sees fit, rather than the individual who put in all the hard work to obtain everything. Therefore, it is absolutely mandatory to plan ahead for your future to ensure that you will be well prepared for any events life may throw at you. In order to live your life to the fullest and experience each day with the greatest moment, one must be at ease in knowing that their future is set regardless of what happens. If granted the opportunity to look into the future and know exactly what will occur and when then everyone would have a plan for their final day. However, that is not the case, thus it is recommended that all individuals regardless of their age begin planning for their future by hiring an Estate Planning Attorney.
Rich individuals Prioritize Setting up Trusts over Drafting a Will:
After working difficult, long hours, for an endless period of time, wealthy individuals immediately begin considering the best way to protect the assets they have earned. In doing so, they choose to create trusts to ensure that a trustee would hold the assets on behalf of the beneficiary. Wealthy individuals rely on these trusts to protect their wealth in order to pass down this monetary value to their children. Many individuals set up trusts because of the numerous benefits, one in particular being the reduced estate taxes, which saves the individual money. Many wealthy people create a Living Trust while the grantor is still alive. They then select beneficiaries to receive the benefits of the established trust. The Revocable trust allows the grantor to act on the behalf of the trustee in terms of managing the assets within the trust. This allows the individual to skip the probate process, while still protecting one’s assets. Trusts are great in terms of asset protection, which is why wealthy individuals are always in a rush to create them and procrastinate on drafting a will. These individuals or solely focused on the present and have not even considered thinking about what would happen to those assets upon their death. However, granted that life is full of surprises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, it is certainly a great idea to begin making plans for the future. The will allows the individual to directly express their best wishes in terms of what to do with your assets, your healthcare plans, and guardianship for your children in the instance of your passing. It certainly would be extremely frustrating if the future of your family and your financial assets were left in the hands of the court system, which knows nothing about your interests or the needs of your family. Upon writing the will, you become the testator who will nominate an executor based on who you believe would best represent your interests and wishes. This means that you would have the opportunity to select someone who you trust will do everything exactly the way you would have wanted it done. You would be able to name beneficiaries in order to identify the plan for distributing your assets. A will even allows you to pick an individual to care for your pet after your passing. The best part about a will is that an individual has the ability to update it at any time in the case that their interests change. Therefore, when creating trusts, individuals should absolutely take the time to create a will that would reflect their exact wishes.
For further Estate Planning inquiries please contact the Law Office of Inna Fershteyn at 718-333-2394 to best prepare for your future in selecting an attorney that works best for your needs.