It might initially make sense to you that leaving behind instructions for your loved ones when it comes to your funeral plans with your will is an easy way to keep like-minded papers together. However, in the heat of the moment it is unlikely that your loved ones will be able to find this important information with the short period of time they have to make funeral decisions. 

This makes it very important for you to document these plans in advance, or even better, to invest in them and make sure that your loved ones know where to find these details. One of the main reasons this could be a problem for your estate planning purposes is that wills are often not even read or found until days or weeks after a death.

This is too late to be of important help to those family members who must make critical decisions about the disposition of a body as well as scheduling memorial or funeral services. You might want to make a separate document laying out your wishes and whether or not you have made any investments or plans already in your funeral plans.

This will make it easier for your loved ones to get access to this critical information sooner rather than later. You can document more long term and comprehensive estate planning strategies with the help of an experienced and dedicated estate planning lawyer. This will help you avoid many of the most common problems that many people face and allow you to incorporate your individual intentions in a plan for the future.

When is the last time you really sat down and reviewed your estate plan? It’s probably been awhile. If anything has changed in your life since the last time you made this plan, now is a great time to review. Whether you’ve adopted, had grandchildren, had a change in marital status, or simply accumulated more possessions, you need a plan.

Most people have not updated their estate plan recently and may not have even considered some of the important questions about what would happen to them, their medical care, their children or their property if something happens to them. If you are unable to make decisions at a future point in time, you may need those estate planning documents to be in place for your family members to make important and quick decisions.

Many people get overwhelmed by estate planning or assume they don’t need it and these are big mistakes that could block you from getting the important benefits of the estate planning process. It’s a good idea to instead consult with a knowledgeable lawyer to discuss the opportunities available with estate planning. You can start by writing down what is most important to you and if you have any specific requests around what you want to happen to certain pieces of property.

Likewise, if you and your spouse can agree on who would be responsible for taking care of your minor children, it is vital to document this in at least a basic will. The support of a lawyer can go a long way for answering many of your most common questions and helping you to understand the next steps available to you. If you haven’t updated your plans in several years, it is now the perfect opportunity to schedule a consultation. If you’ve never created a plan at all, there is no time like the present. Reach out to a knowledgeable estate planning lawyer today to learn more.

One of the hardest parts of dealing with the loss of a loved is being asked to make decisions and make financial commitments about final arrangements. Unfortunately, however, this is also one of the first decisions that comes up when a loved one passes away. You can minimize the possibility of challenges with this by having a consultation with an estate planning attorney well in advance and talking through your options.

The support of a lawyer can help you to clarify your wishes when it comes to final arrangements and you can make things much easier for your loved ones during this challenging time to be able to act quickly and follow through on those wishes that you have. The endless options can be overwhelming to confront when dealing with the loss of a loved so by putting this in writing and making it easy for your loved ones to find after you pass away, you won’t leave your family to guess.

You can create a declaration of disposition of last remains to help give these important instructions to your family members quickly. This is very important if cremation is desired because otherwise some funeral homes or next of kin might have to petition the county’s district court for permission to cremate remains depending on your location. You can make this much easier on your family by giving them exact instructions so that they do not have to deal with the additional confusion.

There are many different terms you may hear in connection with the estate planning process and one of these is proving a will. This means that a witness to the will itself gives testimony to a state government official that they indeed did see the signing of the will. This might be done with the clerk of the probate court, the clerk of the surrogate’s court or the register of wills.

It can be difficult to locate witnesses if the original will was signed many years ago. This is because that person may no longer be able to give testimony, might have moved away or be deceased. The will can be accepted without being proved in some states if all interested heirs and parties give consent. If the witnesses are not available in other states, the will can be proved by the testimony of two persons who did not witness the will signing directly but can identify the decedent’s signature. These people are known as non-subscribing witnesses.

When thinking about getting witnesses to see the signing of your will, make sure you think carefully about people who will be relatively easy to locate in the event that something happens to you sooner rather than later. For more information about creating your own estate plan, schedule a consultation with an estate planning lawyer today.