Planning what happens after you die isn’t an easy process. So much so that 60% of Americans don’t have a will. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go through the process to ensure your assets get handled correctly after you’re gone.
The problem is that it isn’t easy to do on your own. A lot goes into estate planning, so it pays to find help to ensure you do everything correctly.
Keep reading if you aren’t sure if hiring a divorce lawyer Chicago is the right choice when planning your estate. Below are six great benefits you’ll see when you hire a lawyer for your estate.
1. Avoid or Reduce Time in Probate
Probate will vary based on your location, so there will be different situations where you need to go through the probate process. However, you don’t always need to go to court to handle an estate after someone passes away.
In many situations, you can avoid a lengthy probate process by reducing the number of assets you need to distribute after you pass away. The best lawyer will be able to help you make that happen.
From creating shared bank accounts that transfer after you pass away to making sure you have no debts, an estate lawyer can help you reduce your assets today. If you can get the assets you need to distribute under a certain amount, you can skip the probate process by hiring estate and wills specialist without going through the courts.
If you can’t avoid probate, you can still craft your will to reduce the time in probate. You can ensure nothing is left to chance, and all your assets quickly make their way to the right people.
2. Reduce Taxes
Not all estates are tax-free. Depending on how much your estate is worth, the people receiving assets may have to deal with tax liabilities on both federal and local levels.
Luckily, there are many things you can do to reduce your tax liability after you pass away. Your estate planning lawyer will help you divide assets in a way that will avoid tax liability.
You can do anything from creating trusts to creating joint accounts with the people receiving assets from your estate. Your lawyer will walk you through all your options and help you take action to reduce your tax liability.
Of course, you may not be able to avoid estate taxes completely. Your estate planning attorney will help you map out how much you’ll owe on your estate after you pass away to ensure nobody gets caught by surprise with a large tax bill.
3. Keep an Updated Estate
Drafting a will once isn’t always enough to properly plan your estate. Things can change over time, so there may be new considerations to make as time goes on and you acquire new assets.
A great estate planning lawyer will help you keep your estate documents up to date. You can stay in touch with your lawyer throughout the years to let them know what’s going on.
Here are a few life changes you can experience that can change the way your estate gets handled:
- Divorce
- New home
- Additional income
- New children or grandchildren
- Marriage
Talk about potential changes when you first speak with your estate planning lawyer. They’ll tell you when the right time to contact them in the future is. From there, you can update your estate documents to ensure everything gets handled properly.
4. Follow the Law
You would think that the distribution process would be easy after you pass away. Unfortunately, governments don’t always make that a reality. You need to follow many laws during the estate planning process to ensure everything works as you intended.
Working with an estate lawyer will help you follow all the rules in your area. Things can change a lot based on where you live, so it isn’t always easy to know where to look to figure out the rules.
Laws can also change over time. If something changes in the future, your current estate plan may not be legal and require a rework. When you work with an estate lawyer, they’ll keep track of changes to the law and let you know that things need to change to comply with the new rules.
5. Ensure Everything Is Covered
The estate planning process can be intimidating for someone unfamiliar with the process. There’s a lot of little details to cover, and it’s easy to miss something.
Working with an estate lawyer means you won’t miss anything. Your lawyer will look through your finances and assets to figure out everything you need to include in your estate documents.
That means your family won’t need to start from scratch when managing your estate. They’ll know your wishes and can execute them without any confusion.
6. Get a Future Resource
Your estate lawyer doesn’t only have to work with you when planning your estate. Your lawyer is a partner your family can use during the distribution process to ensure they do everything correctly.
Your family can ask questions, get advice, and figure out if they are handling things correctly. It’s still possible to misread a great estate document and do something incorrectly. If that happens, you can get in trouble with the government.
Your lawyer is a resource to stop that from happening. Make sure your family knows who your estate planner is, so they know who to call if they run into any problems.
Hiring a Lawyer Is Worth the Money for Estate Planning
You can’t afford to make a mistake with your future plans when you plan your estate. If things aren’t perfect, things can get interpreted the wrong way, and you’ll end up with your estate not handled correctly. Hiring a lawyer will help stop this and ensure everything goes as planned once the time comes for your loved ones to handle your estate.
Do you want to learn more tips to help you plan for things after you’re gone? Check out the blog to find more posts that can help you make better decisions.
