The Importance Of Estate Planning When You Are Young

When many people think of estate planning, they often think it is a task reserved for older people. However, this is a misconception. The truth is that everyone can benefit from having an estate plan, whether they are old, young, single, married, wealthy, or low income. If you are a young person, our St. Petersburg estate planning lawyer explains three important reasons why you may want to start planning for your future.

Planning for Life Events

Estate plans are particularly important for young couples, as it can help them outline their financial priorities and understand what is necessary to protect the things most important to them. For example, estate planning can help couples understand the devastating impact a sudden and unexpected death of a partner or spouse will have on them. The couple may then want to purchase life insurance as part of their overall estate planning. Your estate plans can also address who would act as guardian of your minor children in the event you and your spouse unexpectedly die.

Power of Attorney, Health Care Surrogate, and Advance Medical Directives Documents

Generally speaking, younger couples are more active than older individuals. The increased activity may mean that younger people are at a higher risk of sustaining life-threatening or life-changing injuries. If a person becomes incapacitated and they are not able to express their wishes about their own legal and financial matters, a power of attorney is a document that can designate another person to make those decisions. A health care surrogate designation is another important document to have in the event of incapacity because a health care surrogate makes healthcare related decisions for you if you can no longer make them for yourself. These documents are important to have in the event you are no longer have the capacity to make your own decisions.

Protecting Partners in Common Law Relationships

Today, it is very common for couples to live together before they get married. Sometimes, people live together for years without entering a legal union and in some instances, people never get married but continue living together quite happily. These are known as common law relationships, but they are not recognized under Florida law. As such, if two people are involved in a common law relationship and something happens to one of the partners, the other has no legal recourse, nor do they have any right to the person’s assets or other property.

Without an estate plan in place, the non-disabled partner will also not have any say in their partner’s financial or healthcare decisions, in the event they become incapacitated. If these couples want their partner to make decisions for them and to inherit their property at death, it is imperative then that these couples have an estate plan in place that gives one person the authority to make the important decisions and the right to inherit the assets.

Contact Our Estate Planning Lawyers in St. Petersburg Now

Estate plans are important for everyone, regardless of where they are in life. If you have not yet created one for yourself, it is important to speak to our St. Petersburg estate planning lawyers at Legacy Protection Lawyers, LLP today. Call us now at 727-471-5868 or contact us online to schedule a consultation and to learn more about how we can help you prepare for the future of you and your loved ones.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0733/0733ContentsIndex.html