ADK Heritage Law, Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Administration

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Intern Observations

College applications, prom, graduation, and … an estate plan?

6/25/2018

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During my senior year of high school, I was worried about the usual stuff: SATs, college applications, grades, sports, prom. Sure, I was thinking about the looming reality that was adulthood, which, for me, hit a few days after graduation, but I hadn’t really thought about what turning 18 meant beyond being able to vote. I’d be going to college soon, and I had enough on my plate at the time. As you might have picked up from my last post, I had never given any thought to an estate plan, much less why every 18 year old should have one regardless of what they do after high school.

I know what you’re thinking. What does an 18 year old own that’s so valuable, it should be protected in an estate plan? Well, the answer is their life. Parents or guardians might assume they still have control over and access to their child’s school or healthcare records, but that’s not true. In California, the law recognizes 18 year olds as adults with "the legal right to privacy and to govern their own lives." Having a plan in place for your child as soon as they turn 18 is essential to ensure you can access their information and make decisions on their behalf in an emergency. A plan also guarantees that your child’s wishes are upheld if something happens to them. Although I’m not suggesting you replace that birthday or graduation gift with an estate planning worksheet, I do hope you’ll consider it as an addition.

There are four primary components that make up estate planning for young adults. The first is durable power of attorney for health care, which names parents (or whoever the child chooses) as health care agents with the power to make medical decisions for their child in the event that the child is unable to. The second is HIPAA authorization, which permits parents to access their child’s medical records and communicate with healthcare professionals and insurance companies. The third is general durable power of attorney, which allows the child to choose someone to make financial decisions on their behalf if they become unable to. Finally, the fourth component is a will, which allows the young adult to decide what will happen to their social media accounts, bank accounts, and any other assets.

If you are a parent reading this, my primary word of advice is to include your child in the planning process. It can be a difficult topic to talk about, and making sure everyone is on the same page might make the process easier. If you, the reader, are a young adult interested in starting a plan, then my suggestion is to more deeply research what all those documents and authorizations mean. Figure out who you actually want to be able to make decisions on your behalf if anything were to happen to you. You are the one who gets to decide. We’re not invincible, our lives are valuable, and our wishes about what we want to happen to us and our belongings should be respected, even if we don’t have a million dollars in assets. While we might never need a plan like this, we’ll be glad it’s there, just in case.

See you soon,
Nicki
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What is estate planning, anyway? ... Wait, why should I listen to you?

6/18/2018

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I’m going to be upfront with you: I do not have professional legal training. Before I started at ADK Heritage Law, I had a very basic (pretty much nonexistent) understanding of estate planning. Aren’t estates just large properties with elaborate mansions and lanscaping?
 
So, it is safe to say I came into this internship position at or even below the level any client might be at when they are just beginning the estate planning process. As I started preparing for my internship, I quickly learned that estates aren’t just properties. They’re all of your assets, which includes property, but also money, cars, and literally any other thing you own, like jewelry, furniture, and even your Instagram account. Maybe it’s because I’ve never made a large purchase, or because I don’t really own anything of significant value, but I’ve never actually thought about what happens to people’s stuff after they pass. In my family situation, I always just figured everything would be split 50/50 between me and my only sibling. As I’ve learned in the last two weeks working here, however, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
 
If you want to check out the main page for a more in depth explanation, feel free to do so. But, for the moment, I’m just going to summarize what I’ve picked up both from scrolling through that page and from actually reading and handling the documents that go into estate planning. There are four main areas of estate planning: management, lifetime gifts, gifts at death, and health care. Management involves deciding who you want to manage all of your houses, cars, and jewelry (i.e., your assets) if you ever become unable to manage them yourself during your lifetime. Lifetime gifts refers to deciding who gets what and when while you’re alive. Gifts at death, on the other hand, involves writing down who will get what and when after you pass. Finally, health care refers to who will take care of you shall you ever need care, and who will make health care decisions for you if you ever become unable to.
 
Ultimately, estate planning is about ensuring you are the one who decides what happens to you and your possessions both during and after your lifetime. Regardless of your age, marital status, or family size, estate planning protects and upholds your decisions on official documents. Something I’ve observed as an intern is the extreme detail and intricacy of those documents. My word of advice for those interested in starting the process? Go to the professionals, in person. Invest in an attorney that you trust will not skip over the details. Names being only slightly misspelled or dates being off by a single day, for instance, can seriously derail the management of your assets, especially after you pass.
 
As to why you should listen to me, well, like estate planning, that’s also your decision. I just hope that what I shared can make a complex process a little simpler. Thanks for reading and see you next week.
           
Cheers,
Nicki
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    Author

    Originally from Santa Paula, CA, Nicki currently studies political science at UC Berkeley and plans to attend law school. Drawing from her observations as a summer intern at ADK Heritage Law, she aims to share unique and accessible insight into the complex world of estate planning.

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