Married Couples And The Estate Planning "Vulcan Mind Meld" / Overland Park, KS

For a single person, estate planning can be hard enough. Even though it it is just you sitting down with your own your aspirations, a legal pad, a pen and perhaps a cup of joe. While you may be of one mind (literally), there is much to think about and many legal options to evaluate.

What about married couples?

However close and regardless how long they have been together, married couples are not just of “one” mind.

Consequently, they will have that much more to think through and plan.

As a married couple planning for your estates, what objectives should you consider together?

There is no one answer because every couple is unique, with unique assets, loves ones, and objectives. Nevertheless, every unique couple may share certain objectives in common.

Forbes recently offered a helpful little list of eight common objectives for married couples planning their estates and they are applicable in Overland Park and elsewhere.

Those eight common objectives from the article titled “Eight Common Estate Planning Objectives Of Married Couples,” are: 

 

1. Providing for loved ones.
2. Minimizing taxes.
3. Protecting assets passing to surviving spouses/heirs.
4. Keeping plans simple and inexpensive.
5. Ensuring privacy.
6. Ensuring continuing control over assets
7. Planning for possible incapacity.
8. Asset management.

As the original article notes, not every objective may be relevant or important to you and yours. However, simply looking through the list of eight and considering the common objectives in a personal context can be a useful exercise. Only when you and your spouse form a "Vulcan mind meld" over shared objectives can you begin to really talk about the means by which to reach them.

Begin an estate planning conversation with your spouse soon and engage competent legal counsel who can help find the proper tools to accomplish your goals.

Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” When making your financial, tax and estate plans, do not go it alone. Be sure to engage competent professional counsel.

For more information about estate planning in Overland Park, KS (and throughout the rest of Kansas and Missouri) and to download free tools to help you organize your estate, visit my estate planning website.

Reference: Forbes (May 13, 2014) “Eight Common Estate Planning Objectives Of Married Couples”