What is an estate plan and why do I need one?
Your “estate” is simply everything you own: bank accounts, stock, real estate, motor vehicles, jewelry, household furniture, retirement plans, life insurance. Your estate plan is the means by which you pass your estate to the next generation. This can be accomplished through a variety of instruments. Most retirement plans and life insurance policies pass to whomever you name as beneficiaries. Property that is jointly owned passes to the surviving joint owner. Trust assets go as provided by the terms of the trust. Only property you hold in your name comes under the instructions laid out in your will. If you don’t have a will, such property passes under the rules of “intestacy” set out in state law. In general, those rules provide that your property will be divided among your closest family members. Problems often arise when people don’t coordinate all of these methods of passing on their estate. The will may say to divide everything equally among your children, but if you put an account
