Colorado Singles Resource Guide - Fall 2007 - (Page 40) LEGAL by Preston J. Branaugh, Esq. estate Planning fOR SiNGLES M provide for their care. 40 FALL 2007 Single adults should consider the following in their estate planning: What assets do I have, and how will they be directed to provide for my loved ones? One area often overlooked is who is named as beneficiaries on various policies and accounts. These designations can override your estate planning documents, and can cause unintended distributions or allocations from your estate. If your list of designations do not make sense such as listing a deceased relative, you need to look at your entire estate when doing good planning. any people assume that only wealthy or older individuals should have an estate plan. However, proper planning is important for all adults. Very often, people will say to me “I don’t have a lot of assets, just my home, some life insurance and a couple kids. Do I need to do any estate planning?” The answer to this question is illustrated in the recent events related to Anna Nicole Smith and her estate. Not all of us have $434 million dollars to provide for the care of our children, but good planning is needed to properly Should I have a Living Trust? A Revocable Living Trust, created during lifetime and hence “living”, is a document that can allow your estate to bypass probate. Probate is the process of changing ownership of assets from a deceased owners name to the new owner. In Colorado, the probate process is not terribly costly or time consuming. As a result, I generally recommend people understand the benefits of a Trust before creating one. These benefits include avoidance of multiple probate proceedings where real property is owned in other states, greater privacy, and easier administration during incapacity. Even if you do not prepare a Living Trust, you can still create a trust that will allow for the holding of assets and eventual distribution to children or others, as discussed further below. What is a Living Will? Unlike what the name might suggest, this is not related to the creation of a Will during lifetime (as if there were another time to do so!). A Living Will is a nickname for the Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatments. It allows you to designate if you want certain life sustaining procedures to be
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