Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can skip out on essential estate planning just because you don’t have children. As a partner in a married couple, you still have two main concerns to address with estate planning: creating a power of attorney and determining how you want property transferred if something happens to you.
If something happens to you, you probably want your spouse or another individual to take over the responsibility of managing your affairs. Although these are difficult questions to ask, you need to be prepared for the event of incapacitation, and estate planning can help you address your affairs management.
If you don’t have a will or trust to handle what happens to your property, state law takes over. This can have the negative impact of passing on your wealth the way that state law wants and not the way you want. As an owner of assets, it’s likely that you have some input over what you’d like to happen to your assets, and that’s why it’s critical to figure out how the transfer of your property can happen. If there are not other family members who you would like to inherit the assets, it might be worthwhile to discuss your options, anyways.
It’s possible that you can help minimize the estate taxes faced by the remaining spouse, but you may want to look into giving over some of those assets to charity, too. Either way, put yourself in the driver’s seat on estate planning and be sure you have articulated your wishes.
There are multiple tools that may be relevant in the estate planning scenario of a couple without children. To learn more about structuring your future no matter what your circumstances, contact our office for a consultation at info@lawesq.net.