You spend most of your life caring for and supporting your family. Ensuring that loved ones are taken care of after your death should be no different. Crafting a detailed and thorough estate plan is the first step in continuing to provide for your relatives after you’re gone. While some choose to create these documents on their own, the process can be extremely complicated and developing an estate plan that will function according to your desires is not an easy task. KJK has a number of skilled and experienced attorneys who are ready to assist you in this endeavor. Samir Dahman offers a comprehensive Family Estate Plan, which meets the needs of most Ohio families.
The most important step in crafting your estate plan is understanding what each document means and how it will affect you and your loved ones. The following documents are included in the Family Estate Plan:
- Instructions for Titling Assets. This document identifies how to title your assets, such as insurance policies and retirement accounts so that they are distributed in accordance with your wishes.
- Pour-Over Last Will & Testament. The last will and testament identifies where your assets will go once you have passed away. It includes answers to these questions: What happens to your assets when you die? Who is the executor of your estate? Who will be the legal guardians for your minor children?
- Authorization for Use and Disclosure of Protected Health Information. This is a HIPPA waiver that will allow medical professionals to release your medical records to those listed in this document.
- Advance Directive – Living Will. This is a legal document giving instructions to your family, your doctors, and your healthcare agent concerning the end of your life. You can indicate your desire concerning artificial life support, treatment or the termination of treatment. The document indicates your decision on do not resuscitate orders, the removal of feeding tubes, and the removal of hydration.
- Durable General Power of Attorney. This power of attorney identifies person(s) you name to handle legal and financial matters for you if you are unable to do so because of a mental or physical disability. They stand in your shoes and have the ability to pay your bills, collect and sell assets, manage investments, file tax returns, and the like.
- Health Care Power of Attorney. This power of attorney is for medical and health related decisions. You name an agent who will have the power to: give and receive medical information; hire and fire healthcare workers; select nursing homes; and give informed consent to treat or to operate. You may also give the agent the power to remove life support including feeding tubes and hydration at the end of your life.
- Customized Revocable Living Trust. This document determines the beneficiaries of your assets and how those assets will be distributed. During life, the creator of a Revocable Living Trust (the “settlor”), can change the distribution plan. Upon the death of the settlor the Trust then becomes irrevocable and cannot be changed.
- Bill of Sale. This is a document that transfers tangible personal property to the trust.
- Affidavit of Trustee. The affidavit is a document that your successor trustee can provide which declares that the settlor has passed away.
- Certificate of Trust. This is a document that the trustee may provide to a person other than a beneficiary – a bank, for example – instead of a copy of the trust document itself. This allows you to keep the terms of the trust private, but still provide proof of its existence.
These documents provide full and complete instructions for your loved ones that will allow you to continue to provide for them, even after you are gone. Call Samir Dahman at 614.636.1250 today to learn more information and get started on your estate plan.