Estate planning is not just for your grandma, rich people, or families with kids. Call it adulting or simply being prepared, creating a quality estate plan is an essential part of your financial health. Here are five valid reasons for single, twenty-somethings to make an estate plan ASAP.
- The future of your digital assets (e.g., bank or credit union account information, social media accounts, and more) are in limbo. So much of our lives are lived online that it’s just as important to have your online presence accounted for as your personal, physical property.
- Your debt still needs to be handled. Unless it’s student loans, your debt just doesn’t go away if you pass away, and someone in your family may well be responsible for paying it off.
- Without an estate, your assets will be liquefied to pay off debt, and then reassigned to whomever a probate court deems to be the best recipient. This also means that without an estate plan you cannot donate your assets to the charities you care most about.
4. Do you really want to leave all of the burial decisions and house cleaning to your distraught loved ones?
5. Who’s going to parent your fur baby (dog, cat, bunny, chinchilla, you name it) if something happens to you? You’ll want your pet to go to a loving home and an estate plan (with a pet trust) is a great (only?) way to set the standard for continued care and ownership.
These are just a few of the many considerations that are, yes, tough to think about, but so important.
Have questions? Need more information?
A great place to get started is with my Estate Plan Questionnaire. Also, I’m always here to offer guidance, explain important terms, and answer questions. Feel free to reach out at any time.