They know what you want.
One of the best benefits of creating an estate plan is sitting down to make choices that you know can benefit your family after you die. The choices you will have to make go far beyond deciding on inheritances, and will also include such topics as making medical decisions and choices about the kind of legacy you want to leave behind. If you don’t make such choices, you can often cause your family significant hardship by forcing them to try to determine what you would have wanted.
They can focus on grieving.
Your death will be a difficult time for your family. Having a complete estate plan in place will make it much easier for them to go through the grieving process without having to worry about complicated legal issues. A good estate plan will, for example, make it much easier for your family to inherit property after you die because it will minimize or eliminate the requirement of having to go through probate first. It will also go a long way in preventing family conflict over who receives what, and when.
They don’t have to agree with one another.
When you make an estate planning decision, those decisions become legally enforceable. If your family has a difficult time agreeing on, for example, the kinds of medical choices you would want if you’re incapacitated, a good estate plan eliminates the need for them to reach an agreement. As long as you make your own decisions, you don’t have to rely on family to come to an agreement to make them on your behalf.
Michael Robinson, Estate Planning Attorney
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