Chapter 16 Contents & Cost of an Estate Plan with a Trust

This is the foundation of your estate plan. It allows assets owned by the trust to avoid probate and contains your plan for who inherits your property and when they get it after your death. See Chapter 7 Trusts Explained from A to Z. The trust can provide life-time asset protection for your surviving spouse and loved ones after the death of the first spouse so that their inheritance cannot be touched by their creditors or by an ex-spouse if a child gets divorced or by a bankruptcy court if a surviving spouse or a child files for bankruptcy. You name alternate heirs to inherit your property if a loved one dies before you. The trust can include incentive (graduate from college or be employed full time) and disincentive provisions (no drug use and unemployed) that you select.

This is the document in which you name the people or charities that will inherit your assets after your death. Without a Will or a Trust, the laws of your state of residency at the time of your death rather than you will determine who inherits your property. You need a Will so you can be sure your assets go to your desired heirs, not the heirs selected by your state of residency. If you have minor children then you also need a Will because you name one or more people in the Will who you want to be the guardian(s) of your minor children if something happens to you.

Everybody needs this document because it names people who you authorize to make decisions about your medical care if you cannot. If you need medical treatment, but are incapacitated and cannot communicate with the doctor, who will decide on your treatment? If the doctor wants to know if he or she should perform risky surgery and one family member says yes and another says no the doctor may require the family to go to court and spend thousands of dollars and waste precious time to get a court order that says operate or do not operate. This was a constant problem experienced by Terri Schiavo’s family. This key estate plan document can save your family thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees and court costs. If you have a Healthcare Power of Attorney your doctor will follow the instructions of the person you name in the document.

The Living Will is a document that contains instructions from you to the hospital, your doctors and other healthcare professionals that you do not want to be kept alive by machines if you cannot communicate and are in a terminal or brain dead condition. The Living Will instructs the healthcare providers to “pull the plug” if you are in that condition. This is a very important document because it prevents massive and unnecessary medical bills and intra-family fighting over what to do about your condition.

Another problem experienced by Terri Schiavo’s family occurred when her ex-husband wanted the doctors to turn off the machines that were keeping her alive for years after the accident that injured her brain. Terri’s parents did not want the doctors to terminate life support. A living will could authorize a doctor to pull the plug if you are being kept alive by a machine.

Terri Schiavo is a perfect example of why everybody needs a Healthcare Power of Attorney and a Living Will. Terri did not have either document and her family paid the price emotionally and with money that could have been better spent on something other than lawyers. Do your family a big favor and adopt both of these important estate plan documents so nobody has to burn money by going to court to get an order dealing with your medical care or authoring the doctors to pull the plug.

This document authorizes one or more people you select to handle your financial affairs if you are incapacitated. If you are in a coma, incapacitated or suffer mental impairment, who will manage your financial affairs? If you have not signed a Financial Power of Attorney your family will have to spend thousands of dollars to get a court order that appoints somebody as your conservator with the legal right and power to act on your behalf with respect to your financial affairs. If you become incapacitated without this document nobody will be able to write checks on your bank account and pay your mortgage or bills without spending thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer to get a court order appointing a conservator.

This is a document that is incorporated in your Will. The Personal Property Memorandum allows you to make gifts of certain tangible personal property without modifying your Will or seeing an attorney. For example, your Will might say that if you die you give everything to your spouse or children, but you could alter that plan by completing and signing a Personal Property Memorandum. You could complete, date and sign the PPM and indicate in the document that when you die you want to give your watch to your sibling and your piano to you friend. Gifts made in the PPM take precedence over our asset distribution plan in your Will. We give you this document in Adobe pdf format so you can revise the PPM whenever you want to change your gift plan.

This is a special deed that transfers your home to your trust on your death (if you are single) or on the death of the second spouse (for married couples) or companion.

This is a document that authorizes your healthcare providers to give information about your health and medical condition and treatment to the people you name as your healthcare decision makers in your Healthcare Power of Attorney. Without this document your family may have to file a lawsuit to get a court order that the healthcare provider disclose your patient information.

This document authorizes one or more people you select to make healthcare decisions for you about your mental health if you are incapacitated.

For people who want to donate any of any of their organs after death.

This is a 12 page document that you can use to plan your funeral or memorial service and tell your family how you want to be remembered.

We purchase a five year membership for you with a company called DocuBank. We give DocuBank your Healthcare Power of Attorney, Living Will and HIPAA authorization. DocuBank will give you a plastic card for your wallet or purse that shows your emergency contact information and tells the doctors and hospital that they can obtain these important documents 24/7 if you are in the hospital..

Carry this card in your wallet or purse to inform people that you have a pet and the name and phone number of your emergency pet care giver.

After you sign your documents we will scan them and give you a thumb drive that has a digital Adobe pdf copy of all of your estate plan documents. We recommend that you give copies of the digital files to your trusted family members and the successor trustees of your trust.