Keeping Your Estate Plan Organized

Keeping Your Estate Plan Organized

Estate planning exists to help you keep your affairs organized after your passing. It only makes sense that you should do everything possible to ensure that your estate plan itself is organized as well. A clear, thorough estate plan will make life much easier for your loved ones in the difficult time after your passing.

One of the best ways to engage in estate planning is to break it down into sections and work through each one thoroughly before you even start thinking about the next category. Categories in which could break up your estate plan include funeral plans, wills, trusts, insurance policies, stocks, safe deposit boxes, heirlooms, pensions and retirement accounts. You will want to organize all of this information so that your family will be able to easily understand your wishes and know how best to proceed with each category.

You should also be sure that your family understands how to proceed after your passing. You should have named your personal representative (also known as an estate executor), and your close loved ones should either know where you keep your will and estate planning documents or how to get in touch with your estate planning attorney. Your estate plan itself should have a clear checklist of tasks that the personal representative needs to handle upon your passing to ensure that administrating the estate goes smoothly.

If you store a copy of your estate plan in your own home, you should make sure that its location is known but that it is safe. Keep it in a fireproof container, a filing cabinet or a safe in your home. Always discuss the plans you’ve made with loved ones who are close to you so that they know what to expect. This way they will also be able to determine whether there has been any tampering with your will after your passing.

Work with the Tampa estate planning attorneys of BaumannKangas Estate Law. for more tips and further guidance on how to stay organized throughout this process.