Update Your Estate Plan Before Traveling This Holiday Season
This is the time of year when many people start making plans to travel for the holidays. Of course, traveling requires you to plan what you will pack, how you will travel, hotel reservations, rental vehicles, and more. What many people forget to plan for before traveling is ensuring that their estate planning documents are all up to date. Traveling in foreign destination makes it especially important, but regardless of where you travel, there is always a risk of injury, illness, or even death. To make sure your estate plan is legally sound before traveling, here are four tasks you should be before heading out this holiday season:
- Update Your Beneficiaries – Your retirement accounts and life insurance policies are valuable assets and they will not transfer through a trust or will. Instead, you are required to list a beneficiary to the policies. A beneficiary is the person that will inherit the asset upon your death. It is vital that you list one beneficiary as your primary and another person or more to be an alternative. Be sure that these beneficiaries are updated regularly, especially if there has been a divorce, marriage, or new child in the family.
- Make a Power of Attorney – There are certain injuries and illnesses that could leave you incapacitated and unable to make important decisions. Because of this, it is important that you give someone else the legal authority to make such decisions on your behalf by creating a power of attorney document. A medical power of attorney will allow the person to make healthcare decisions for you and a durable power of attorney, or financial durable power of attorney, will make decisions for your finances. The same person can be in charge of both. Just like with beneficiaries, these decision makers may need to be changed over time, so be sure to make sure these documents are up to date if you have already created them.
- Name Guardians for Your Children and Pets – If you have a minor child, it is important that you make sure someone is designated to care for them in the event you die or become incapacitated. These people may be raising your kids to adulthood, so make sure you trust them with your child’s care. Just like your children, pets are considered part of the family and arrangements should be made for their care as well. With the right documents in place you can rest assured that your furbaby will be taken care of after you are gone.
- Digital Asset Organization – It is likely that you have a variety of digital accounts such as social media, email, and more. It is vital that you inventory these accounts because if you don’t, they could be gone forever if something were to happen to you. At minimum write down the accounts and the passwords and ensure that someone you trust knows how to get to this information, as well as what you’d like them to do with the accounts.
Contact a Florida Estate Planning Attorney Today
If you need help getting your estate plans prepared or updating them, contact Tampa estate planning attorney David Toback today. Our office has years of experience dedicated to helping our clients ensure that all of their affairs are up to date and valid.
Resource:
leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0736/0736ContentsIndex.html
https://www.davidtobacklaw.com/life-changes-that-require-a-review-of-your-estate-plan/
