A big part of being an adult is anticipating and preparing for your own future, even when that means thinking many decades ahead. Given this fact, every legal adult should have an estate plan. Even if you don’t yet have much in the way of assets or financial responsibilities, you still probably have people you care about. If you create the basics of your estate plan when you’re 18 or slightly older, it’s much easier to manage as you mature and undergo changes in your life circumstances. That is to say, editing the plan if you get married, have children, purchase real estate, or your life evolves in any other way takes a lot less time than starting from scratch.
For peace of mind in estate planning, New Jersey residents have long utilized the help of the skilled professionals at SGW Law. Even with the most complicated and unusual financial matters, family dynamics, or asset structures, we make starting, editing, and putting into action an estate plan painless and effective.
Contact our legal team now for superior estate planning assistance or continue reading below to find out more.
From 18 to Retirement: Estate Planning Essentials at Every Life Stage
Your concerns, family structure, financial needs, and personal goals will naturally change with time. Therefore, your estate plan will have to change alongside you. While everyone’s journey through life is their own, there are some common milestones many people hit around the same age. This means that there is a kind of progression that estate planning goes through, becoming more elaborate, accounting for more assets, and providing for more heirs and dependents. Nevertheless, you have to start somewhere, and with an estate plan, earlier is better.
Why Age 18 is the Perfect Starting Point for Estate Planning
As most people are still living with parents or guardians at age 18, and are probably busy with college, trade school, or some other form of career training, it may seem that estate planning wouldn’t be important for this group. However, even though it’s not top of mind when you have your whole adult life to look forward to, setting aside just a little time to start a plan pays off later on.
The day you turn 18, you are legally responsible for many kinds of decisions in your life. Even when you have other people helping you out, such as a parent taking you to open a bank account or lease a car, you ultimately must make the choice and sign binding documents yourself. Relevantly for estate planning, this includes medical decisions.
At minimum, you should designate a healthcare proxy and a durable power of attorney. This is important in the event you have a health emergency any time in the future, as this can sadly happen to people of any age. This will allow a family member you trust to make decisions about your care if you are unable to. While this legal documentation and the terminology involved can seem complicated, the SGW Law team is here to make it easy, especially for our clients who are busy young adults occupied with work or school.
While the majority of 18-year-olds don’t have many assets to distribute, a growing number of young people do have financial portfolios thanks to the popularity of online communities like Reddit’s WallStreetBets. If you fit this profile, your initial estate plan should ideally account for these holdings as well.
Your 30s and Estate Planning: Setting the Foundation for the Future
People in their 30s often have to contend with some of the most life-changing and financially consequential types of personal events. This is the age range in which much of the population now gets married, purchases a home for the first time, or has a first child. As such, your 30s are likely to be the decade in which you have to spend the most time thinking about and changing your estate plan.
If you do have children who are minors, your estate plan must designate guardians for them in the event you are unable to care for them before they reach the age of majority. As minor children are your dependents, there should be details on how they will be provided for financially in your estate plan. If you work full-time and have a spouse who does not, or if your income is significantly higher than your spouse’s, include them in this financial section as well.
Hopefully, your wealth is able to grow in your 30s due to investments and appreciating assets such as real estate. Given this, provisions for trusts and insurance in an estate plan can help protect the net worth you’ve worked so hard to build.
Estate Planning in Your 50s: Time to Secure Your Legacy
As a member of the workforce in your 50s, you probably are earning at your maximum potential. Ideally, you’ll still be making significant contributions to one or more retirement funds that you will be able to access about a decade in the future. And retirement savings are quite complex in legal and tax terms; they will need to be covered by detailed distribution instructions in your estate plan, made under the advice of an experienced attorney. This will ensure your estate incurs as little tax liability as possible while avoiding the delays of the probate process through clarity.
If you have children who are in college or nearing college age, you should make sure funding for their education is part of your estate plan. Any real estate holdings you have should be passed down to heirs, or else you should make provisions in your plan for the sale of these holdings. Should you have any favorite charitable causes you support, you may want to add gifts to these organizations or groups during estate planning as well. All in all, as your goals for retirement become clear, you should update your estate plan to make sure it reflects your preferences and the realities of family, business, and social dynamics.
The Golden Years of Estate Planning: 65 and Beyond
By the time you reach retirement age, much of your estate plan should be solidified, as you will probably be certain about all the assets you currently hold and what you want to be done with them. However, if your overall health changes – if you are diagnosed with a chronic condition, for example – this might be an occasion to edit your plan. Even if your physical health is stable, think about including advance directives for your future healthcare in your estate planning.
Finally, you may want to continue with and improve upon many of the estate planning actions you took during your 50s, such as safeguarding your beneficiaries’ inheritances while minimizing the possibility of high tax burden or legal challenges to your estate.
Contact Our NJ Estate Attorneys
Developing or updating an estate plan doesn’t have to be a difficult or daunting prospect. As a Garden State resident, when you get in touch with the trusted New Jersey estate planning attorneys at SGW Law, we’ll lend a helping hand from start to finish.
No matter your age or circumstances, we’ll get you the assistance you need and the peace of mind you want. Get in contact with us now and we’ll work with you on making your estate plan the best it can be.