Maybe you believe in some kind of afterlife. How would you feel if you were to look down after you die and see your family arguing over what they believe were your final wishes and the things you left behind?
You’d likely feel upset and annoyed. Even more so if you discover you could have taken simple steps to avoid these problems.
Here are some of those ways:
Set out your funeral wishes in a letter of instruction
This is the place to ensure a family member with very different beliefs to yours does not try to adapt your funeral to their style.
You can stop them from burying you in a churchyard and instruct them to cremate you and scatter your ashes at a favorite fishing spot, for example.
Explain your estate plan to people
You’ve decided son number one doesn’t need any more money, but son number two does.
If you do not mention son one in your estate plan, they may assume there’s been a mistake or a fraud.
If you tell them why you’re leaving them out now, it gives them time to accept your decision. You should always write that you are intentionally leaving them nothing to avoid them thinking or claiming there was an oversight.
Keep your estate plan up to date
You’ll accrue and lose things and people as you go through life. Forgetting to remove your ex’s name from a beneficiary designation could cause an embittered dispute between them and your final partner.
Forgetting to add a new property you buy could leave people fighting over who they feel you’d have left it to.
Estate planning may seem complex, but it needn’t be with legal guidance.