Q. How much wealth and assets (or debt!) will you leave behind to your family or loved ones when you die?

A. All of it.

As we move onto the hereafter, however that may look, our ‘things’, they stay here… somewhere. It’s hard to believe that over half of all Americans don’t have a Will or some sort of Estate Plan in place to dictate the somewhere their things will go. You cannot look anywhere without being bombarded by advertisements for products and services that will help you find financial freedom, even if that freedom is only apparent and not actual. But we spend so much time and money preparing for retirement, a comfortable lifestyle, and for our kids to go to college (despite its waning value).  It seems incredible that people would go to such effort just to let the government step in and take over control by not putting an Estate Plan in place.

It is a little bit like the original video game systems where you couldn’t save your progress in game.  You could spend two hours and get nearly to the end of the level, and your dumb sister would come and unexpectedly turn the power off.  You’d lose all your progress.  Gone, never to be found unless you spent an entirely new two hour session redoing everything you’d done. But that extra special super power you discovered is gone forever.

You can have the best intentions for your loved ones and spend a lifetime providing for them, overcoming debt burdens, and building a modest savings account.  But without the legal protection of an Estate Plan, your intentions are substituted by the best guess of our government as to what your intentions probably would be. I love government, really I do, I am a lawyer, but the government doesn’t value what I value, it doesn’t know my life, my loves, and the legacy I want to leave behind. Thus I cannot possibly trust the government to dispose of my assets in a way that reflects the legacy I want to leave.

Luckily, I get a say in who I trust to resolve my final affairs, where my stuff goes, and who will take care of my kids. There are as many Estate Plans as their are people on this earth.  Therefore, it’s important to call a lawyer and discuss your situation to discover what you may need and put something in place right away. No more delay. Your dumb sister may pull the plug at any moment.