Important Things To Know About Estate Planning In South Carolina

In this article, you can learn about:

• The steps to take when you’re ready to get started with an estate plan.
• Common mistakes and misconceptions related to estate planning.
• When working with an estate planning lawyer can benefit you.

What Are The Most Important Things To Do When You’re Ready To Start Estate Planning?

To get started on your estate plan, you should take the following steps first:

1. Discuss your present needs and future goals with your spouse, significant other, parents, or someone close to you.
2. Make a list of all your assets so that you visualize what needs to be accounted for in your plan.
3. Research or talk with an attorney about the advantages and disadvantages of a will or a trust so you can make the correct decision about which to use in creating your estate plan.
4. Speak with a financial advisor about the best ways to invest your money for long-term gain.
5. And finally, prepare a durable power of attorney for assets, a living will, and a healthcare power of attorney.

What Are The Most Important Estate Planning Decisions You Should Make After You’re Newly Married?

A marriage is a significant life event that warrants creating an estate plan or updating any existing plan to account for your new legal union. The decisions you should make as newlyweds are the same decisions any married couple looking to create an estate plan should make. They include:

1. Each of you should have a durable power of attorney for assets. This will allow one spouse to sign legal documents for the other if they are unable to.
2. Both of you should complete healthcare directives and file them with your doctors. Some common healthcare directives include a declaration of a desire for a natural death, a living will, and a healthcare power of attorney.
3. You should have a will or a trust, depending on your needs.
4. Finally, you should come to an agreement about how individual assets will be held and dealt with in the marriage. In other words, you should decide what will happen to assets owned by one party prior to the marriage.

What Should Be Avoided When Writing Your Will?

A beneficiary should never witness or notarize a will. Doing so will make that beneficiary ineligible to receive anything in the will.

To simplify your will, you should try to avoid making a long list of your specific items and the individuals you wish to give them to. Unless there is a particular item you wish to give to a particular person, you should try to generalize your property into categories when naming who will inherit it. For example, it is better to write “all my furniture,” than to list each individual piece of furniture in your will.

Additionally, you should not name people that you want left out of the will. If someone, such as a child or a relative, is not in the will, it’s assumed they are removed from the will. Putting their name in the will to state that you’re leaving them out just opens the door for litigation over the will.

What Are Common Mistakes People Make When Drafting Their Own Will Without An Attorney?

There are several common mistakes that people make when attempting to draft a will without the assistance of an attorney. While these mistakes may seem simple, they can result in an invalid or unenforceable will:

• The failure to have two separate witnesses.
• The failure to have your own signature notarized.
• Having a beneficiary in the will also act as a witness or a notary.
• The failure to have your will typed (handwritten wills can be hard to read or interpret).
• Handwriting anything on the finished typed will (this will void the will completely).

What Are The Benefits Of Creating A Trust In Addition To Having A Will?

When you have just a will, your estate will go through probate after you pass away. One of the best advantages of having a trust is that you avoid probate.

Avoiding probate saves your beneficiaries time and money. Probate generally lasts one to two years and involves fees, including attorney’s fees. Avoiding probate also means creditors won’t be notified by the court of your death, preventing them from making claims against your estate.

Another benefit of a trust is that you can give assets in the future. For example, you may have a grandchild who is six or seven years old. With a trust, you can designate that the grandchild gets access to his or her inheritance at the age of 25. You cannot do that with a will.

When a trust is established by multiple people, or “trustors,” it automatically continues when one trustor dies. For example, if you and your spouse establish a trust and one of you dies, there’s no need to do anything at that point. That’s not true with a will.

A further benefit of a trust is that it does not need to be recorded at the courthouse or anywhere else. It is completely private. A will, on the other hand, is filed at the courthouse and is public property – anyone can go and look at a will.

Finally, a trust can simplify the division of property when you are in a blended marriage. For instance, if you and your spouse both have children from an earlier relationship, it is much easier to create an estate plan with a trust than a will .

What Are The Top Misconceptions About Revokable Trusts?

The most common misconception about revokable trusts is that it is only for the very rich. That is not true. Whether or not you should have a trust depends on what you want to accomplish after you pass away, not how rich you are.

Secondly, there is a misconception that a trust will eliminate taxes. A trust can help you save on inheritance taxes or postpone inheritance taxes. It can also help lower income taxes if it is set up right. However, a trust will not completely eliminate taxes.

Third, some people believe the trustee is restricted in what he or she can do. That is not true. The trustee can do anything in the trust that he could do if there was no trust.

And finally, many people think that there must be multiple beneficiaries to make a trust worthwhile. This is not true -our firm has helped create several trusts that only involve a husband and wife.

How Do You Know When It’s Time To Start Working With An Estate Planning Attorney?

While anyone can benefit from consulting with an estate planning attorney, it is especially useful to reach out if you’re in one of the following situations:

1. You are married and have children.
2. You want to give assets in the future (this will require a trust).
3. You are contemplating divorce.
4. You own land and want to avoid probate.
5. You have a blended marriage, meaning, you and/or your spouse have children from a previous relationship.

For more information about Estate Planning In South Carolina, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (864) 271-7940 today.