Ok, I lied. Estate planning is not a one step process and can take a bit of your time. There are more things I consider in estate planning and these include:
Make moves to lower estate taxes.
They may call it death tax or whatever name they will coin next time. The truth of the matter is that if you own more than $2 million in assets, then you should consider moving your assets to lower tax vehicles.
It is obvious what this will mean to your family so I don’t need to explain it.
Create a document that explains everything.
Don’t laugh but this is extremely important. It should be the easiest thing to do since you don’t have to think too much law stuff to do it. Just write down what you were thinking when making your new will or you want your family to know how to locate your accounts, life insurance, legal documents, safe-deposit boxes, hidden stashes of cash, attorney, financial planner, and other trusted advisors.
Include the important information in a document that you give to someone you trust.
Discuss your plan with the people who matter.
Explain your wishes to important friends and family, especially if they might have a future role to play. And encourage them to get their own estate plan. If your relatives have their affairs in order, it could spare you a great deal of difficulty down the road and keep as much wealth as possible within the family.
In the end, anyone with a good estate plan is bound to have a merrier time since you are not stressed by anyone and you know exactly what you want. You will be surprised to find that when you start the estate planning process, you might come to learn more about your loved ones than you thought.