Don’t delay your estate planning

When you ask people why they haven’t created an estate plan, one of the main reasons they’ll give you is simply that they are procrastinating. They won’t say it this way, necessarily. But they’ll talk about how it’s something that they mean to do in the future or how they know it’s important, but they’re going to do it after they retire.

On one hand, it’s understandable why people feel this way about estate planning. They think of it as something that you do near the end of your life. If you look at the average life expectancy in the United States, you may assume you’re going to live to be around 78 years old. But it’s actually very risky to procrastinate estate planning, and no one knows exactly when it will be necessary.

It’s more than just assets

The thing to remember is that your estate plan does more than just divide your assets. For example, having an estate plan lowers the odds of an estate dispute between your heirs. Simply having a plan in place can help them get along and keep family relationships strong.

Another thing that an estate plan can do is dictate how to make medical decisions in advance. You can either create a list of medical choices that you’d like to make now, such as types of care that you don’t want, or you can use a medical power of attorney to choose an agent. If you do this, then the agent is in charge of making your decisions if you’re unable to do so.

Both of these things can be very valuable to you at any age, and you can put your family in a difficult position if you pass away without them. This is why it’s not wise to procrastinate estate planning and why you should know all of the steps to take.