What To Include When Planning Your Estate

19 February 2015
 Categories: Finance & Money, Blog

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If you have decided that it is finally time to start planning your estate, you might need a few hints and tips for getting started. This way, you are much less likely to end up missing anything that is important. Check out the following tips on things to include when you are planning your estate so that you will have everything in order as quickly and easily as possible.

Mortgage Payoff

You can leave your home to whoever you want. However, if there is a mortgage attached to the property, the person who inherited it will need to find a way to pay off that debt or the property could be lost to a foreclosure sale. Therefore, you might want to consider leaving an additional amount of money to the person who will inherit the property so that the mortgage and any other debts attached to the property can be cleared.

A Backup Plan

You might have the ideal plan when it comes to who gets what. However, would you like a say in who gets everything should the people originally intended for your estate not be able or willing to accept it. For example, someone might pass away before you and you did not have time to update your estate plans. Someone might not be interested in taking ownership of property. Either way, you want to have a plan for who will receive everything should there need to be someone else in charge. This will simply help resolve any confusion that might later take place when it comes to settling your estate.

Inheritance Taxes

Will those you leave property to be subjected to inheritance taxes? This is something that can be clarified by your estate lawyer. Should you find that this will be the case, you might be interested in helping to pay this tax. This way, your loved ones can enjoy what they have just been given without having to worry about losing anything to taxes.

As you can see, there are multiple things that you need to consider including when you plan your estate. Just make sure that you are hiring a well qualified estate lawyer for the job. This way, all of your questions will be answered and all of your concerns will be addressed. It will also help ensure that no one will be able to later successfully rip your estate plans apart due to technicalities. Talk to people like Great Plains Diversified Services Inc for more information.