The Legacy Protection Record Keeper and the Importance of Planning

Dean Hanewinckel

Planning is a part of life.  We are constantly planning our days, our businesses, our vacations and our schedules.  Planning our estate is just another side of the same topic.  But because it represents a certain finality, many of us are reluctant to do it.  When we plan our estate, we recognize our mortality and that makes it tough to get started.  Some people even have a fear that once they begin to plan their estate, it will lead to their death.  Unfortunately, the truth is, no matter what we do we get closer to the end each day.

As an attorney who has helped my clients with their estate planning for over 25 years, I have found that the clients who are the most motivated to plan their estates are those that have had to administer the estate of a loved one or friend who has died.  If the loved one or friend failed to take the time to plan his or her estate, the probate process became painfully difficult, and my client was even more motivated.

Some of the circumstances I have seen that resulted from poor or no planning are:

• Children failing to receive an inheritance.

• Loved ones losing large portions of their inheritance because of unnecessary probate costs and estate taxes.

• Family businesses having to shut down or be sold.

• Life Insurance benefits having to go through probate because the beneficiaries were not updated.

• Valuable stock certificates or other assets were forgotten and never passed on to heirs.

• Probate proceedings that have lasted two, three or more years when they could have been avoided altogether.

These are just small samples of the results of poor or no planning.

That’s what the Legacy Protection Record Keeper is all about:  Giving you a step-by-step procedure to get started in the estate planning process.  With the information you will gather and document in the Planner, you and/or your estate planning professional will be able to assess your situation and create a blueprint to pass your estate in the most efficient, least costly (and least taxed) manner that will render the least pain upon those you leave behind to administer it.

Your wishes can be carried out, in a large part because you have made them known and have put them in writing.  It all begins with organizing and planning.  START TODAY - REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE LEGACY PROTECTION RECORD KEEPER by filling in the form on the top left corner of the Home page.