Attorneys of all kinds fill up our world. When a person is in need with something regarding the law, an attorney is often called upon to help. One of the most popular demands an attorney responds to, and one everyone needs, is for a living trust. Finding a power of attorney for your financial accounts, home and belongings once you have passed on is important, and also a way to feel more peaceful about your passing. An estate planning attorney can help you take care of all the pesky paperwork as well give you advice on some of the technical details you may not fully understand.
Believe it or not, there are currently about 51% of 55 to 64 year old Americans who do not have wills. Almost as surprising, there are 62% of Americans that have not even begun to draft a will between the ages of 45 and 54. The most popular excuse for not having obtained an estate planning attorney for 57% of the U.S. men and women is that they have just not gotten around to making one. However, according to Business Insider, a will, a living will and a power of attorney are the three most important documents for any adult to have.
When working with an estate planning attorney, creating a will and choosing a power of attorney is not nearly as difficult as some people tend to think. In a recent study, one third of the people that answered questions said they would rather have a root canal done or do their taxes instead of drafting a will. However, in reality, drafting a real can take only a painless 10 or 15 minutes. It is not even as expensive as people may imagine. There is a will referred to as a bare bones simple will that an estate planning attorney can draft up for less than $100.
Besides the obvious reasons, a will is beneficial for many, many reasons. The top reason most clients, 59% of people, hire an estate planning attorney to help them get started is to avoid probate, so the home of the deceased does not go somewhere they did not wish for it to go. The second most popular reason, stated by 57% of people, is so they can minimize the discord among the beneficiaries. And the third most desired reason, according to 39% of people, is to draft a will is to protect the children of the deceased from mismanaging their inheritances.
There have been new updates on certain aspects of the will. Since June 2014, an individual can use a Beneficiary Deed, or a Transfer on Death Deed, so that the designated beneficiaries will have the real property transferred upon the owner’s death. Now, in 2015 you can leave gifts called bequests upon your death. Free of any federal estate tax, these bequests can be worth up to $5.43 million.
