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What is the first step in estate planning?

On Behalf of | Feb 9, 2022 | Firm News

You may be young or you may be older but it is never too early to start thinking about putting money away for retirement. One of the things that you should ask when planning your estate is whether your designated beneficiaries are still current.

Designating beneficiaries is not just something that you do when you are getting on in age and thinking about retirement. It is very common for people who work to designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries for life insurance or other policies when they fill out the paperwork as part of their employment.

It can be an uncomfortable feeling to designate a beneficiary, which means that the person will get something after you die. However, it is important to have a plan in place because you never know what might happen.

If you have a designated beneficiary, you should make sure that the designation still makes sense.fFor example, if the beneficiary is an ex-spouse, you might want to change that designation. If you do not make sure that your beneficiary is who you still want them to be, you may lose control over who you think should inherit some of your assets after you are gone.

The purpose of assigning a beneficiary

The last thing that you want is for your estate to be challenged and for the case to end up in court. Solid legal advice can help you to avoid that so your estate planning is seamless and does not take a toll on anyone emotionally, mentally, or psychologically. You also want to protect your loved ones and ensure that they get what you want them to have.

 When you assign a beneficiary, it means what you have goes to the person or people you want it to go to. And an estate plan doesn’t stop with life insurance and other policies. You probably have worked hard for many years to provide for your loved ones and you want to make sure that they have the benefit of what you want for them after you are no longer around. This is where a knowledgeable Virginia estate planning lawyer can really make all of the difference.

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