You might benefit from beginning estate planning in your 20s and 30s.
Estate planning can also be beneficial to young people despite their general thinking that they have relatively few assets so they do not need to plan for their estates. However, creating a basic estate plan framework when you do not have many assets is the best time to do it. Why? Because it does not take as much effort to set everything up.
Forbes recently offered some advice on how to go about setting up a basic estate plan in "Here's How To Financially Prepare For Your Death While You're Still Young And Unmarried."
The advice includes:
- Account Beneficiaries – Make sure you have designated beneficiaries on any financial accounts you have, such as retirement accounts and bank accounts.
- Avoid Probate – Have an estate planning attorney create a probate avoidance scheme for you, such as a trust. It does not matter if you do not have much to put in the trust right now. As you acquire more assets you can put them in the already created trust. By putting beneficiaries on your accounts, you are also keeping that money out of probate.
- Basic Will – Get a simple will to cover any property you do have but cannot put in trust or for which you cannot designate a beneficiary.
- Student Loans – If someone has cosigned your student loans and you still owe on them, you can get life insurance that covers the debt so the cosigner does not have to pay it if something happens to you.
An estate planning attorney can guide you in any needs you might have in planning for the future.
Reference: Forbes (May 31, 2016) "Here's How To Financially Prepare For Your Death While You're Still Young And Unmarried