A proper, well thought out Estate Plan provides for, among other things, asset distribution after your death (who gets your things), naming guardians for your minor children and names agents to make health care and business decisions in the event that you are unable to make these decisions yourself. Depending upon your current family and financial situations, your estate plan will include four or five essential legal documents namely a Last Will and Testament, Advanced Health Care Directive, Living Will and General Power of Attorney.

If your current situation doesn't warrant the need for a Revocable Living Trust, then your foundational estate plan will include four important documents: a Last Will and Testament, an Advance Medical Directive (also called a Medical Power of Attorney), a Living Will and a Financial Power of Attorney.

If your current situation warrants the need for a more sophisticated foundational estate plan, then your plan will include five important documents: a Last Will and Testament, a Revocable Living Trust, an Advance Medical Directive, a Living Will and a Financial Power of Attorney.

If you have a will-based estate plan, then your Last Will and Testament will contain a detailed list of instructions as to how your property should be distributed after you die. If you have minor children, it will also contain provisions for designating a guardian for your children.

If you have a Revocable Living Trust, then your Last Will and Testament will only be used as a safety net to catch assets that you did not transfer into your trust prior to your death and put them in there after your death. This type of will is referred to as a ³pour over will² and contains minimal instructions since your Revocable Trust is the main document governing your estate plan.

A revocable living trust contains a detailed set of instructions covering three important periods of your life: what happens while you're alive and well, what happens if you become mentally incapacitated, and what happens after your death. In addition, assets held in the name of the trust at the time of your death will avoid probate.

Advance Medical Directive/Medical Power of Attorney/Designation of Health Care Agent

An Advance Medical Directive allows you to designate a health care agent to make medical decisions for you if, for any reason, you are unable to make them for yourself. It can also be used to designate someone to serve as your guardian or conservator in the event a court determines that you've become mentally incapacitated.

A Living Will contains a written set of instructions to your physician as to whether or not you want to receive life-sustaining procedures if you've been diagnosed with a terminal condition. It also gives guidelines for your family members to follow if you've become terminally ill.

A Financial Power of Attorney allows you to delegate to the person of your choice the ability to manage assets that are titled in your individual name, including retirement plans. It can also be used to transfer assets into your Revocable Living Trust if you become mentally incapacitated before the trust has been fully funded.

Estate planning pays real dividends‹in results achieved, in dollars saved, and, most important, in security and peace of mind. And it doesn't have to be expensive, traumatic, or even especially time consuming.

• Determine what happens to your property‹who, what, when, and how. It enables you to coordinate gifts in your lifetime with bequests in your will or trust. You can apportion property among your family members, your friends, and charities that are important to you. If you don't have a will or a trust, state law will step in and determine how to dispose of your property, in ways that you might not intend.

• Determine who will be in charge of carrying out your wishes, your executor if you have a will, and your trustee if you have a trust.

• Save money on probate, taxes, and other expenses of settling an estate.

• Be in control of your own life. A living trust can provide a way to manage your property should you become disabled. A living will or a health-care advance directive can set up a plan for your medical care, should you no longer be able to make decisions for yourself.

• Coordinate estate planning with other kinds of financial planning. For example, the new tax law has made significant changes in incentives to save for education, making this an ideal time to look into planning for the education of children and grandchildren, as well as other financial issues.

• Decide whether your business will be sold or stay in the family‹and if it stays in the family, who will run it.

Not necessarily. While a will is usually the most important part of an estate plan, it's not the only part. These days, it's common for a person to have up to a dozen will substitutes-that is, various ways of distributing property regardless of whether the person has a formal will. Pensions, life insurance, gifts, joint ownership, and trusts are but a few of the ways you can transfer property at or before death quickly and inexpensively.

You want your beneficiaries to receive promptly the property you've left them as part of your estate plan. Options include

• gifts made before you die;

• insurance or pension benefits paid directly to them as the named beneficiaries;

• a living trust;

• using expedited probate for wills, which is available in many states, especially for smaller estates; and

• taking advantage of laws in certain states that provide partial payments to beneficiaries while the estate is in probate.

Estate planning can also minimize expenses by keeping the cost of transferring property to beneficiaries as low as possible. For example, choosing a competent executor for your estate and giving the executor the necessary authority to carry out your directives can save money and simplify the administration of your estate.

If you have minor children, an estate plan enables you to designate the best available person to care for them after your death. Through a will, you can nominate a legal guardian for your children and name an executor to handle the distribution of your estate to your designated beneficiaries.

If you have an estate plan that involves a living trust, the trustee will take the role of the property guardian. The trust will contain instructions for the financial well-being of the children. Just as parents can draft a memorandum to the guardians of their children, they can also draft a memorandum to their trustee that goes beyond what has been stated in the trust.

A trust document can give the trustee authority to assist guardians of the children with the financial burdens associated with raising additional children. Such burdens may include the need to buy a bigger car or put an addition on a house.

Whether you have a will-based or trust-based plan, it is important that your documents enable your trustees/property guardians and personal guardians to act in the best interest of the children in ways that are consistent with the wishes, directions, and values of the parents.

Yes. A good estate plan gives the maximum allowed by law to your beneficiaries and the minimum to the tax collector. This becomes especially important as your estate approaches the so-called estate tax exemption amount, currently $1 million in New York.

Emphatically not. One glance at the news demonstrates that far too many young and middle-aged people die suddenly or become mentally or physically incapacitated. An estate plan can be tailored to anticipate both of these contingencies.

The time to plan for death or disability is when you're healthy. As a general rule, people make better decisions when they feel good and tend to make worse decisions when coping with mental or physical stress, strain, or illness. Moreover, a so-called deathbed will, or one made by someone whose mental competence is questionable, may invite a legal challenge.

It's also important not to procrastinate. Don't put off making your estate plan until your estate reaches a certain level or value. Even if you don't have as many assets now as you expect to have someday, it's easy to update the plan every few years as your assets increase and your life circumstances change. If you put in a few hours now learning the basics and setting up your plan, you'll know you're covered in case of an unexpected event.

These alternatives don't provide you with legal expertise to review your work. Do-it-yourself books and kits, some lawyers say, have caused more work for lawyers (and bills for clients) than they have avoided. Once you begin totaling up all your assets, you may be surprised to find that your estate is larger than you thought, meaning a simple will isn't enough. At the same time, family relationships are becoming more complicated. Today, a do-it-yourself will might not do the job.

Also, due to the strict formality requirements of executing a Will a do-it-yourself may very well fall short of such requirements, thus invalidating the Will. An invalidated Will could have unintended consequences, i.e. people inheriting your assets that you otherwise did not intend to inherit.

What's more, most do-it-yourself alternatives can't tell you what strategies you might be able to take advantage of to save money or to make sure your wishes are accomplished. Estate planning for most people should consist of more than just a will: IRAs, insurance, living trusts, and other elements can be a money-saving part of the mix. The precise mix that's best for you is as unique as your circumstances.

And because they cannot give legal advice, many alternative estate providers often fail to inform you when there might be a better (and cheaper) way to accomplish your goals. For example, a recent New York Times story recounted a reporter's experience with one such service. He wanted to leave his father part of his estate, but require the father to bequeath anything left over when he died to the reporter's children. "The service would not 'could not' tell me that such a proviso is not binding (something I have since confirmed with a lawyer, who pointed out other ways to accomplish my goal)," he wrote. "I might have died in the naïve belief that my children were protected."

Law firms have other advantages‹witnesses available (wills must be signed in front of witnesses to be effective), codes of conduct that protect clients' confidentiality, and, most of all, lawyers who know the various alternatives the law affords.

Although many people will fit a standard form, many more have unique situations that can benefit from the custom-made advice tailored to their specific situation by a lawyer who's charged to represent their best interest.

Knowing that your will and estate plan will pass legal muster will help you sleep better at night‹and that peace of mind is worth a few dollars more.

In you require assistance with estate planning please call us at (917) 226-6884 or click here for an immediate e-mail inquiry.