By David Hiersekorn
People often tell me that they don't need an estate plan because they don't have "enough" to make planning necessary. The perception is that a person has to have a certain amount of wealth before it is necessary to hire an attorney to plan for it all.
Still, nothing could be further from the truth. At least the way we do it at the Hiersekorn Law Firm, estate planning isn't about "stuff." It's about people. It's about your family and your plans for the future. Your "stuff" is only important because it provides the resources you will use to take care of your loved ones now and in the future.
Probate avoidance and estate tax reduction are only a small part of the overall estate planning process. The larger issues can generally be broken into four categories:
1. Who will take over your responsibilities if something happens to you?
2. Who will take care of you if something happens to you?
3. Who will receive your assets after you die?
4. What standards and limitations do you want to put on the above three decisions?
Whether or not you need an estate plan depends entirely on whether you care about the answers to the above four questions. If you can honestly answer "I don't care" to every question, then perhaps you don't need an estate plan. Otherwise, it's probably time to face the reality that it's time to see an estate planning attorney. Most people fall into this category, regardless whether they have enough stuff (whatever that means).
This is especially true of young families. In fact, I first decided to write this article after realizing that young families are very much in need of estate planning services, but are the ones most likely to avoid it based on the belief that they haven't yet acquired enough assets to require a plan. Or, perhaps they believe that nothing will happen to them and they are safe without having a plan.
Yet, these same families are typically fanatics about making sure that their children are properly seat-belted or buckled into their car seats.
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