If they don't do so beforehand, many Middlesex residents finally get around to estate planning once they have a child. Others do so do as they age, especially if they have someone with special needs that they care for.
There are two estate planning tools called guardianships and conservatorships. They can be set up to ensure that your loved one's finances and health care are taken care of if they become unable to take care of them on their own.
If you work a full-time job in Middlesex, then you likely receive annual visits from a New Jersey insurance representative. They probably ask if you wish to make changes to your coverage or beneficiary designations. They probably offer you long-term disability insurance. It's an important way to protect your assets and a critical part of the estate planning process.
Individuals take out all different types of insurance. You buy collision coverage on your automobile to help cover the cost of repairs if you're involved in a crash. You purchase flood insurance to cover the remodeling of your home if it's overcome by water. Then there's health insurance. You use it to cover any costly medical care that you may need.
Many New Jersey spouses who have assets such as retirement plans, life insurance policies and investment accounts often list their husband or wife as the beneficiary on them. While there's no problem in doing that, it's important that spouses have contingency plans in place for how to handle those same assets if one were to pre-decease the other.
You both can benefit from regularly revisiting your beneficiary designations on your investment accounts. This is especially important if either of you has been married previously, your appointed one experiences a sudden decline in their health or dies. You should make sure to set up transfer on death (TOD) designation documents as well.
It can be beneficial for testators, or for those drafting a will, to communicate with their heirs in advance of their passing. By doing so, they can let them know what their final wishes are. This seldom happens though. Many of them let their preferences be known only after their executor files their will with a New Jersey probate court. This often results in hurt feelings and contested wills.
Quarreling siblings
It is a difficult subject to tackle, but successful people spend some time and effort working out the details of their end of life plans. Many people have assets and properties to share out among living beneficiaries or charitable organizations, and many of them also have families to consider for the future.
Larger assets may be subject to taxation by the federal government or the state government in Trenton. If assets include a house, especially if it is a primary home, writers of wills often want to know if their children or other inheritors will be able to afford to keep it.
If you have worked hard during a career and earned everything you have, it is almost a reflex to protect it for yourself in later life as well as for your children. When it applies to the law, there are various laws in different jurisdictions that help people protect their assets with trusts and other instruments.
What is a homestead exemption?
One woman's mother put off her estate planning, and in fact, she never got around to it at all. When she passed away, she did not leave a trust, a will or any other documentation.
Her death was unexpected, which could be part of the reason why. Many people assume they still have a long time to do their estate planning when they could actually pass away from a car accident, a sudden illness or some other unexpected event in the very near future.
When a testator drafts their will, they're required to appoint an executor to handle their estate once they've passed on. The person selected for this role should be trustworthy as they'll be responsible for paying final expenses and distributing assets to your heirs. This executor should be advised of their appointment to this role in advance so that they can learn more about their responsibilities.
One of the first steps that an executor should take after the testator dies is to locate and file their original will along with a certified copy of the testator's death certificate.
If you were to ask most Americans what estate planning entails, they'd likely say that it involves drafting a will, a power of attorney or maybe setting up a trust or something else along those lines. If asked to give a reason why they need each of these, they'd likely tell you to designate their assets for their heirs after they've died. What they may not know is that these are instruments, much like insurance, that can also help preserve an asset's value.
Asset protection is a large part of the estate planning process, especially if you've accumulated significant wealth or if there's the potential of you having money-hungry creditors hunting you (or your heirs) down.
One of the key responsibilities of the person drafting a will, or testator, is to select the executor of their estate. The individual appointed to this role is responsible for preserving the value of its assets, filing its final tax return, paying creditors and distributing what's left in the estate to any heirs. It's a sign of trusts for a testator to appoint you to this role. Being given it doesn't mean that the heirs will agree that you're worthy of it, though.
Testators are supposed to regularly revisit their wills to make sure that they continue to reflect their wishes. Few do, though. If a will was written a long time ago, then the testator may have since died. Their ability to trust them may have faltered as well. The role of the probate judge is to make sure that your final wishes are carried out, though, including having your executor handle your affairs.
