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By Dr. Julie Alonso, WCI Columnist
Last summer, my husband and I decided to update our wills and trust. Easy, right? Well, I thought so until I started delving into the process. My children are nearly 14 years old, and as they are quickly approaching adulthood, some key questions arose. When my children were 2 years old, we made our first wills with what I now understand was a “contingent trust,” meaning that the trust would automatically be created if the will had to be enacted but otherwise did not really exist in the present.
At the time, we felt pretty good that we’d taken care of that task, shared copies with our family, and kept the original in our safe deposit box. But now, as we had accumulated more assets and financial knowledge over the intervening 10+ years, I felt like this was the time to refresh our estate plan.
Arguably, we should not have waited even two years to do this the first time, but after giving birth to twins during fellowship, making two interstate moves, and starting my first attending physician job, we did our best. We used the legal plan I subscribed to through my job at the time to find a lawyer, and most of the cost was covered by the plan. One of the most important tasks we did in our estate planning was obtaining non-employer-sponsored term life insurance for my husband and me while I was pregnant, so that was already completed. About five years ago, we doubled our life insurance coverage to feel even more secure in our contingency plans. I also have additional life insurance and AD&D through my current job, but I think of that as more of an extra and not my primary coverage.
I know of a colleague who was between jobs when they were diagnosed with a terminal illness and only had employer-sponsored life insurance. They ended up without any life insurance benefits to leave their family.
In talking to friends and acquaintances even recently, I have encountered several with older kids or teens who do not have wills in place. They just have not gotten around to it. Leaving the distribution of my estate to a court to decide is definitely not something I would ever want. Particularly when it includes my most precious assets—the care and welfare of my minor children.
So, what were the tips, tricks, and highlights of the whole process of going through another round of estate planning?
Determine Your Estate Planning Goals
For many, the goal is to leave your heirs with a sense of financial security and/or to leave a legacy behind with charitable giving. Taking time to think about this on your own and/or discuss it with a partner if you have one or a trusted family member or friend can be helpful to get into the right mindset.
Finding an Estate Planning Attorney
There are lots of options out there these days to help with estate planning. Of course, you could use an online legal service that specializes in wills and trusts. It seems like those abound these days, but there are limits to those services if you want to customize your directives and/or have a deeper understanding of the options and process. A good route of referral would be to ask colleagues or friends who have had positive experiences.
I found an attorney through my local medical society, which has affiliated professionals who it vets and recommends for various services. I read online about this attorney’s philosophy and professional experience and also looked at who was recommended in the local doctor groups on social media. The key is that you must feel a sense of fiduciary trust and personal comfort with the attorney before proceeding. Our attorney also offered a discount to medical society members, and his rates seemed on par with other professionals in the region, which ranged from $3,000-$4,000.
We did an initial free consultation and a first meeting on Zoom. We had another in-person meeting to ask a lot of questions and make our wishes known, and we had some e-mail exchanges back and forth to clarify things before meeting in person again to execute the documents with witnesses. Another nice aspect was that he was a mobile attorney, traveling to his client’s houses for in-person meetings. It seemed…
Read More: We Redid All of Our Estate Planning: Here’s How We Made Sure to Find Emotional