If you have young kids, you need to make sure that you have a well established estate plan. When you have kids, there are some extra details that you need to make sure to take care of.
Designated Guardians
First, you need to make sure that you set up designated guardians for your children. You need to discuss this with the individuals that you choose as your child's designated guardian. You need to not just put down the names of the guardians on paper, you also need to write down your parenting philosophy and make sure that they will raise your children in a way that you agree with.
It is a good idea to have at least two sets of designated guardians. You can never predict what could happen in someone's else's life, so you are going to want to make sure that you have a back-up plan for your back-up plan.
Designated Beneficiaries
Next, you need to make sure that you have designated beneficiaries for all of your accounts. For example, you need to designate who will get your money from your life insurance policy and your retirement plan. You can have a primary beneficiary as well as a back-up beneficiary. For example, your spouse could be primary and your children the back-up or secondary beneficiaries.
Establish A Trust
If you have money that you will be able to leave to your children if you die, you are going to want to set up a trust for your children. You don't necessarily want your ten year old to inherit half a million dollars. Additionally, you want to make sure that the guardians that you choose for your are able to afford to take care of your children.
You can set up a trust and appoint a set of individuals to oversee the trust. You can set it up so that your child's guardians are given a set amount per-year to take care of expenses for raising your children. Then, you can have the trust pay for your child's education and pay a specific amount of money to your child while they are in college. You can determine at what age your child gets access to the rest of the money in the trust, or if they will continue to get payouts into adulthood.
When you have young children to take care of if you were to pass unexpectedly, you need to have a guardianship plan for your children and a designated trust to take care of your children. You also need to make sure that you have the right beneficiaries on all of your assets, such as 401(k) and life insurance policies. You also need a will for all other assets.
Speak to professionals like Chesney & Nicholas LLP for more help.
