Estate Planning: Examining your personal situation

People do not realize just how much family and possible beneficiaries they have until they actually sit down and examine their approach to estate planning. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself:
Do you have children? Are you married? Are you single? Is this your second marriage? Do you have children from a prior marriage? Do you have step children? Do you have grandchildren? Do you have great grandchildren? Do you have siblings? Do you have a half brother or half sister? Do you have other family members that you are close with such as a cousin or uncle? Are there organizations, causes, charities, or institutions that you want to leave your property over to when you pass away?
You have to think carefully as far as whom you want to name as your beneficiaries. The benefit of pre-planning is avoiding possible fights between family members. Imagine for a moment that you have children in your current relationship and children from a previous relationship. How exactly would you want your property to be distributed? Perhaps equally among all children? What if in your current relationship, the children are still infants and in your prior relationship, they are all grown with full-time jobs. Would it be fair for the property to be distributed equally, or shouldn't the infant children be allowed a larger portion of the assets.
All of these questions and scenarios come into play when you really examine your personal situation. What if your not married but you have children? You need to ask yourself who will take care of your children (assuming they are minors or mentally ill). Aside from having a guardianship over your children, how will your property be managed in order to support your children? This is where choosing the right executor comes into play. It is important to get in contact with a Probate Attorney or a New York Estate Planning Lawyer to assist you in examining your estate and all of the possible ways you can distribute your assets after your passing.
The greatest benefit you have at your side is the opportunity to actually sit down and consider all the mentioned factors. You do not want to be one of those individuals who has no will or trust set in place. At that point, the courts decide who gets what. Also, the courts can appoint whomever they wish as the executor. All of this can get very costly and the people that suffer the most are your heirs. As overwhelming as all of this may seem, do yourself a service and contact an estate lawyer in NY today to understand what your options are from an estate planning perspective.