Starting the conversation is essential if your parents are living in Delaware and haven’t completed an estate plan. Doing so helps ensure they have a plan for incapacity. An estate plan ensures that your parents’ wishes are respected and can help preserve relationships between family members.
Planning for incapacity
A significant benefit of having an estate plan is ensuring your parents are taken care of if one of them becomes incapacitated. Managing their health care and paying their bills will be completed according to a specified plan that includes a power of attorney designation for financial and health-related decisions.
End of life decisions
Deciding on how end-of-life choices are completed can also be done using estate planning. These decisions might include knowing how to handle remains or turning off life support.
Distributing assets properly
Utilizing estate planning can be crucial in providing the parameters for distributing assets after your parents have died. Knowing how a home, stock market funds and other assets will be distributed helps take a massive burden off your shoulders.
Ensuring an estate plan is complete
When an estate plan is created, including the following elements is important:
• A living will
• A last will
• Designating someone to control finances and make health care decisions
• Knowing if there is a trust
Clearly stating who will make important health care decisions on your parents’ behalf is vital. This person might be you or another sibling. Another critical element is to have a living will, which indicates your parents’ wishes for health care decisions. A last will is also essential as it indicates who receives assets and property. If a trust has been established, you’ll also need to follow this agreement.
Having a conversation with your parents is the best way to prepare for the future if they haven’t started the estate planning process. Taking action helps establish a solid plan.