About half of the population has no kind of estate plan. This means they haven’t created anything from a last will and testament, to a trust for their children, or an advance directive that sets out their health care wishes. Why not? There are numerous reasons, but for many people, the reason they haven’t started any estate planning efforts comes down to very personal and often difficult to discuss reasons.
Reason 1: You find it boring, or worse, hard to understand. Estate planning, at it’s most basic level, involves confronting our own limitations. One of these limits is our ability to sit through tedious legal proceedings and read about or learn about rather dry legal concepts. This is a challenge even to the most experienced attorney, much less the average person with no legal background. Luckily, you don’t have to understand it. All you have to do is find someone who does, such as a good lawyer, so he or she can walk you through it and answer your questions.
Reason 2: It scares you. This is probably the biggest hurdle most people face when confronting estate planning. The thought of our own mortality can be so anathema to us that we won’t think about it or talk about it because it is too uncomfortable. This is a common feeling, but when it stops us from planning, it becomes a burden. Talk about your concerns with your family, religious leader, counselor or a close friend so you can become more comfortable with it and get over your hesitation.
- How Estate Planning for a Family May Trap the Unwary Practitioner - August 31, 2022
- State Income Taxation of Social Security Benefits - August 24, 2022
- Understanding Tax Apportionment Clauses - August 17, 2022
