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Estate planning myths: It’s better to wait

On Behalf of | Aug 27, 2019 | Estate Planning & Probate

You have probably heard that many people put off estate planning and assume that they can wait and do it later. This is often an issue with relatively young people who assume they have decades before their family will need the plan.

What you may not know is that some people take things a step further. They actually think that they can do a better job with their estate planning if they wait. They put it off intentionally.

They do have a specific reasoning behind this decision. If you’re 40 years old and thinking about estate planning, you have no idea how large or small your estate is going to be in 40 more years. Leaving the family home to your kids, for example, seems pointless if you don’t even know that you’ll live in the same home a few decades from now. You probably have relatively low amounts of assets in savings and investments, as well, so you feel like dividing that money up does not accurately reflect what you will have.

Here’s the reality: It’s still better to do your estate planning early. After all, you can always come back to it and update it as your assets change. It’s not set in stone. You’re better off to do it in advance, even if you feel like it’s inaccurate, so that you’re ready for an unexpected event like an illness or an accident. If nothing unexpected happens, you have plenty of years to update the plan and ensure that it’s always as accurate as possible.

Make sure you are well aware of the legal steps you’ll need to take to get your estate plan in place.