How to Talk to Your Parents About Their Estate Planning
If you are like most people, bringing up estate planning with your parents is extremely awkward. You may worry that your parents may think you are just trying to find out how much money you may inherit. However, if you are likely to be the person to take over your parents’ finances when they die or become incapacitated, it’s a valid talk to have with them. Here’s what you need to know:
- Do your parents have any estate planning documents? If so, where do they keep them? It’s important to find out not only about a will or trust, but also whether they have powers of attorney, medical directives and living wills in place. Knowing whether they have life insurance and, if so, where the policy can be located is also important.
- Do your parents know how to go about creating legally binding estate planning documents? If your parents don’t have estate planning documents, our office can help them get the appropriate paperwork in place quickly and easily. Further, your parents may feel more comfortable talking directly to an estate planning attorney about their finances.
- Do your parents have a secure storage location for their paperwork? You need to know where to find the important documents in the event they pass away or become incapacitated. Are they in a fireproof box or a safe deposit box? Adding one of their children as a signer on the account could prevent the need for a court order to open it.
If you haven’t had this important talk with your parents yet, our trusted estate planning attorneys can provide you with guidance and any legal documents your parents might need. While these issues are never easy to discuss, they are made more manageable by working with an attorney with a lot of experience in this area. So don’t let the idea of how to approach your parents keep you up at night. Instead, let us help you help your parents ease everyone’s minds.