Why It’s a Good Idea to Plan Your Estate While You’re Young

Why It’s a Good Idea to Plan Your Estate While You’re Young

There is a common misconception that estate planning is something people only need to worry about when they have a high-value estate, or have hit a certain age. The truth is everyone can benefit from estate planning, including people who are still quite young.

Here are just a few of the benefits that come with estate planning while you’re in your 20s and 30s.

  • You can safeguard an inheritance: If you’ve received an inheritance, estate planning allows you to protect it and create a plan for how you will use it over the course of your lifetime.
  • You can protect yourself if you enter the military: Young people enlisting in the military are often encouraged to establish an estate plan that includes a will and other basic elements, such as powers of attorney and advance directives.
  • You want to control your assets: Even if you don’t feel as though you have a whole lot to your name, chances are you still care about what happens to your assets after you die. You can choose if you want to give money or possessions to people or entities outside of your family, such as friends or charities. You can also determine what will happen to your digital assets, including social media accounts, online documents and online investment and bank accounts (subject to the restrictions of the company with which you have the account such as Facebook or Google).
  • You want to control what happens to you in an emergency: Even if you are young and healthy, there’s always the possibility that you will be involved in some sort of accident. If you want to control what happens to you while you are incapacitated, it is important you make those decisions with an estate plan.

For more information about the reasons to consider estate planning while you’re young, contact an experienced Tampa estate planning lawyer at BaumannKangas Estate Law.