When people think about estate planning, they often imagine elderly parents leaving assets to their adult children. The parents are in their 80s, the children are in their 50s and wealth is transferred from one generation to the next.
Certainly, this happens all the time. But thinking that this is always how estate planning is going to go is a very risky assumption. Many people will put off their estate planning until they reach this life stage simply because they think that’s when they need to do it. But you’ll find out that it may be better to do it far sooner.
Choosing a guardian
For example, if you just had a child, then you may want to pick a guardian to take care of them. You expect to do this, of course, but the estate plan is designed specifically for unexpected events. If something happens to you, you can give the legal power to care for your child to someone else. Doing this in advance ensures that you get to be involved in the process, that the other person also wants to be involved and that there are no disputes between multiple parties.
Creating a trust
Next, you may realize that your child is far too young to inherit all of your financial assets. The solution to this could be to set up a trust in advance. Your assets can then be transferred into this trust, if necessary, and the trustee can later pay the money out to your child in accordance with the guidelines that you give them.
As you can see, estate planning is helpful at all ages, so just make sure you know what steps to take.