As a Minnesota estate planning attorney, the goal is to provide you with the peace of mind that you need in knowing that your family is taken care of after you have died. Through wills, trusts, and a variety of other arrangements, you can make provisions for the end of your life, designate beneficiaries for certain monetary accounts, state who you want to receive what pieces of property, and also designate someone to administer your estate. This reduces any conflicts that may occur between family members and much more.
Planning Your Estate
There are a number of tasks that you can have completed when planning your estate. One of the first is your will. You can state in your will what your wishes are and use it as a guide. You will need to update your will when something changes in your life, such as a divorce, birth or a new child, or when you acquire new assets. The same applies to any trusts that you may set up. In addition to trusts, you can also do the following:
- Set up health care directives so that your wishes are carried out at the end of your life
- Powers of Attorney
- Make sure your life insurance beneficiaries are correct
- Designate beneficiaries for your IRAs, 401(k), and any other retirement accounts that you may have
- And much more
It is important that you are as thorough as possible and that you can also do what you can to keep the estate out of probate. Fully funded trusts are very useful in keeping estates out of probate.
Minnesota Probate Administration
If the estate must go into probate, the personal representative, or executor, named in the will will have the legal obligation to manage the distribution of the estate. It is best to have a Minneapolis estate planning attorney working with you to guide you through the process. This is a process that can be confusing. Our firm can help you fill out the appropriate document, contact beneficiaries, send notice to those beneficiaries, obtain the Tax ID for the estate, conduct an asset inventory, sell assets if necessary, file the last income tax return of the decedent, distribute assets, and much more.
When an estate must go into probate, it is very important to ensure the process moves as smoothly as possible so that there are fewer administrative tasks to do and more focus placed on what matters the most.
Contact A Minneapolis Estate Planning Lawyer
Planning your estate is very important because you receive peace of mind and your family receives the answers they need before they ask the questions. They do not have to wonder what you wanted for them and they do not have to fight over assets since you are able to determine who receives which parts of your estate. To plan for the future, call the Anderson Law Firm at 952-582-2904 to schedule a free consultation.
DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this article does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. Please contact attorney Kirk Anderson for an initial consultation.