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We want to provide for our loved ones as much as we can. Through estate planning, our legacy lives on in providing support to our loved ones even after we pass away. By utilizing available estate planning tools, you can make sure the assets and resources you have acquired over the years go to help those you care about most. In addition to financial support, you can provide additional aid to your loved ones after you have passed away. This can be done by taking fairly simple steps to organize your estate. The time period following the loss of a special person can, after all, be emotionally difficult. On top of this, it can be full of logistical burdens as the estate winds its way through probate and the affairs of the decedent are wrapped up. To help alleviate these burdens, here are some simple, concrete steps you can take to organize your estate.
Take These Simple Steps to Organize Your Estate
To begin tackling the tasks of organizing your estate, it’s great to write a few important things down. Consider all of the things that you know about your assets and how to access them. Do others know this as well? To make sure assets can be located and accessed after you are gone, write it all down. This means keeping a list of your online accounts and how to access them. This may also mean detailing the locations of things such as any safety deposit boxes you may have. Is there anything in a safe where your heirs will need a key or a code to access? Write it down. These are critical details that will help streamline the process of wrapping up your estate after you pass not to mention help ensure that your assets are all found and passed on to the appropriate heirs.
You should also check out those assets that can have, and should have, beneficiary designations on them. This will include things like life insurance policies and retirement accounts. Make sure a beneficiary is listed and it is a most current reflection of who you want listed. Listing a beneficiary on these assets means that the account holdings will pass directly to the named beneficiary. Without a named beneficiary, the account will end up in your probate estate.
Another great way to organize your estate to help out your heirs is by consolidating your bank accounts. For one reason or another, many of us have had a number of different bank accounts over the years. While some may no longer be used, they may still be open and have money in them, albeit minimal amounts. Consider closing out these accounts and transferring any funds into a central bank account. This will help your heirs have to track down all accounts later on.
Minnesota Estate Planning Attorney
For help creating a comprehensive estate plan that serves your needs and goals as well as protecting and serving those you hold closest, talk to the team at Unique Estate Law. Contact us today. From within Hennepin County Unique Estate Law represents clients throughout Minnesota, including Minneapolis, Bloomington, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Chanhassen, and Excelsior.