I often hear clients say they want to make it as easy as possible for their loved ones to handle their estate after they pass away for a wide variety of reasons. In particular, they want to minimize the hassle and time spent by their family members in dealing with “the business of death”. Here are a few ways that you can make it simpler and faster for your family members and friends to take care of settling your estate.
1. Create and Fund a Trust
A tried-and-true method to make it easier for your loved ones to access and settle your estate after your death is to create and fund a Trust. By creating a Revocable Living Trust and transferring assets into it during your lifetime, you can avoid the time-consuming, public, and costly process of probate. This means your family members will be able to administer and distribute your estate in a more timely manner.
2. Prepare Written Burial and Funeral Wishes
To streamline the process after your death, there are two things that you can do. First, you may memorialize your burial or cremation wishes and funeral instructions in writing. A Directive as to Remains accomplishes this goal and is tailored to fit your wishes. Second, you may arrange services now by completing a prepaid funeral plan with a reputable funeral home.
3. Ensure You Have Beneficiaries Designated
It is important to designate appropriate beneficiaries on your life insurance policies and retirement accounts. That means confirming you have a primary beneficiary and a contingent (back-up) beneficiary designated on those assets. If you don’t, it may be necessary for your family members to go through probate after your death to gain access to those assets.
4. Share Where to Find Important Information
We generally suggest that you store the physical copies of your estate plan documents in a secure but accessible location for safekeeping. You should tell a select few family members and/or friends the location so they may find that important information right away after your death. As part of your estate plan, you should also create and maintain a paper or electronic list of all the financial accounts, email accounts, social media accounts, and other accounts you access online along with their associated usernames and passwords. Your fiduciary (Personal Representative, Trustee) will need that information to manage and close the accounts.
5. Share Your Estate Planning Attorney’s Contact Information
If nothing else, make sure to tell your family members that you have an estate plan in place and provide your estate planning attorney’s contact information. I often suggest that contact information is shared via email so that when they are searching for it (hopefully) many years in the future, it is still electronically saved.
Those are just a few of the steps you can take now to make it easier for your loved ones to settle your estate after your death. At Samuel, Sayward and Baler, LLC, an experienced attorney can guide you through other ways to leave your family members and friends clear directions regarding your wishes and make it simpler and faster for them to manage your estate after you pass away.
Attorney Abigail V. Poole is a senior associate attorney with the Dedham firm of Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC which focuses on advising its clients in the areas of estate planning, estate settlement and elder law matters. She is an active member and President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney. For more information visit www.ssbllc.com or call 781/461-1020.
April, 2023
© 2023 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC