A simple estate plan typically includes a last will and testament, but a more comprehensive estate plan can be made up of several documents. It also offers significantly more protections for you, your benefits, and your estate. A comprehensive estate plan can be customized with different documents to meet your needs. A Des Moines estate planning attorney can draft an estate plan that meets your unique goals.
Outline Your Goals and Assets
Before you begin creating your estate plan, you should know what you want to accomplish with the estate plan. This may include wanting to plan for beneficiaries with specific needs, avoiding probate court, limiting taxes, protecting your own financial well-being, and establishing other intentions. Knowing what you want to prioritize in your estate plan will determine what documents are most beneficial.
Gathering and inventorying your assets can help you determine your goals and prepare you for a meeting with your attorney. You do not have to list every piece of personal property you own, but significant assets, like real estate, vehicles, accounts, high-value personal property, and similar assets, should be inventoried. This helps your attorney get a better understanding of your estate and can aid you in planning your wishes for the estate’s distribution.
Designate Your Beneficiaries and Executor
Creating a last will and testament is a basic estate planning document, and it is often foundational in a comprehensive estate plan. You can determine the beneficiaries of your assets, the guardian for minor children, and an executor to distribute your assets. An executor is also responsible for settling debts with creditors, paying the estate’s taxes and expenses, and closing the estate. Beneficiaries may be named directly on assets and accounts rather than in your estate plan.
Designate Your Agents Through Powers of Attorney
A power of attorney document allows you to give legal powers to another individual to complete tasks on your behalf. When that power of attorney is durable or contingent, you can name someone who can make these choices for you when you are incapacitated.
Incapacitation can occur from age, injury, or illness. Documents like a healthcare power of attorney or financial power of attorney can put a trusted person in charge of your medical care or finances. If you are incapacitated, you are not able to give consent to treatment, make choices about your end-of-life care, pay your bills, or take other actions. Your named agent(s) can do these for you.
List Your Healthcare Wishes
By establishing a living will or healthcare directives, you can guide your medical care and provide instructions for your healthcare power of attorney. This document can list your personal wishes for treatment, such as your spiritual beliefs, how you want pain management and end-of-life care to be handled, and where you want to receive treatment.
Establish Trusts
One or more trusts in your estate plan can give you much more control over your estate and provide more protection for your beneficiaries. Like a will, a trust allows you to name those who will benefit from your assets and designate an individual to administer and distribute those assets. Unlike a will, a trust avoids probate. Your beneficiaries can receive their assets immediately, the transfer is private, and they do not lose benefits through the expensive process of probate.
You can create irrevocable or revocable trusts. Revocable trusts have fewer financial benefits, but they can be modified during your lifetime. Irrevocable trusts are much more difficult to change, but they can save you expenses on certain taxes during your life.
Store Your Estate Plan
Finally, find a safe but accessible place to store your documents. Make physical copies and digital copies. It’s important that the documents are accessible to your loved ones, or your estate plan may not be enforced.
FAQs
Q: How Much Does Estate Planning Cost in Iowa?
A: How much estate planning costs in Iowa relies on several unique circumstances. These include:
- The skill, experience, and abilities of the estate planning attorney you work with
- How complex and significant your estate is
- The resources needed to evaluate and inventory the estate
- The fee structure your attorney uses, such as hourly or flat fee
- Where the estate is located and if your properties are located in several states
- The estate planning documents you wish to include in your unique plan
Q: What Are the Seven Steps in the Estate Planning Process?
A: The seven steps in the estate planning process may include:
- Determining your goals and the needs of your beneficiaries
- Listing your assets and evaluating them
- Reviewing the laws in your state about estate plans, estates, and taxes
- Establishing end-of-life care instructions
- Distribution of estate and administration of debts
- Legal review for validity
- Regular evaluation and update of the estate planning documents
However, the exact steps in your estate planning process will rely on your specific circumstances and any challenges that are unique to your estate.
Q: Can I Write My Own Will and Have It Notarized in Iowa?
A: Yes, you could write your own will and have it notarized in Iowa, but there are additional requirements that must be met for a will to be valid in Iowa. For a will to be enforceable, it must be:
- In writing
- Signed by the testator, which is the creator of the will, or by someone in the testator’s presence and by the testator’s direction
- Declared by the testator to be the testator’s will
- Signed by two qualified witnesses in the presence of each other and the testator
Q: How Much Does an Estate Have to Be Worth to Go to Probate in Iowa?
A: An estate that is worth more than $50,000 will enter probate in Iowa. For estates that are worth $50,000 or less and meet other requirements, beneficiaries can file for a small estate affidavit. This allows loved ones to inherit assets outside of probate court. A small estate affidavit may also be useful if the deceased kept most of their estate out of probate through trusts but still has some assets that are not in a trust.
Protecting Your Interests and the Benefits of Your Estate
The most important thing in estate planning is to work with the right attorney. If you create an estate plan that is unenforceable, it becomes a waste of time and money. Contact Stange Law Firm for legal support with your estate planning.
