Life Insurance and Estate Planning

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Decide How To Divide Your Assets and Belongings

In your will, you are able to decide how you’d like to divide your estate when you pass away. Your estate includes any assets of financial value and debts. Your will is also where you’re able to allocate any special gifts of sentimental or monetary value, such as property, jewellery, or even souvenirs!

If you die with debt, it, unfortunately, doesn’t just go away. Your estate will be responsible for paying out anything that you owe, which may affect any gifts you’ve left behind. Fortunately, If you’ve purchased life insurance, you’ve likely helped minimize the amount of debt remaining and maximized the gifts for your loved ones.

Regardless of how many assets you think you have, it’s important to make a plan in your will to ensure your belongings end up in the right hands.

Make A Plan For Your Dependents

If you have dependent children, you’ve likely considered purchasing life insurance to ensure that they’re protected financially if you were to pass away unexpectedly. However, it’s also important to make a plan for their care as well.

By making a will, you can designate a guardian for your dependent children. By doing this, you’re letting your loved ones and the courts know who you’ve entrusted to provide care and support for your child or children.

While selecting a guardian can be difficult, you’ll feel better knowing that you have a written plan in place for your children in the event of your death. If you pass away without creating a will, it makes the process of deciding who gets what parts of your estate much more difficult and stressful.

Protect Your Financial, Health, and Personal Decisions

While it’s important to prepare for your unexpected death with a will, it’s just as important to think about what would happen if you experienced an accident or a personal medical emergency.

This is where power of attorney comes into play. By making your power of attorney documents, you can designate someone to make decisions about your property, finances, personal life, and medical care in the event that you become incapacitated. This can include paying your bills, maintaining your property, or making decisions related to your healthcare. You can also outline your wishes within your documents.

You can think of your power of attorney as a form of disability insurance (it takes care of you while you’re alive) and your will as a form of life insurance (it takes care of your loved ones after you pass away).

Reduce Future Stress And Burden For Your Loved-Ones

While thinking about your death can be difficult, purchasing life insurance and making an estate plan is an easy step you can take today, to offer your loved-ones peace of mind tomorrow. Not only does it protect your family, but it can also reduce future stress for your loved ones.

Having an estate plan in place can make the process of probating a will easier and make wrapping up your affairs less of a burden. In addition, it can minimize the chances of any arguments that may arise around what you would have wanted.

Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and having an up-to-date estate plan can bring some extra peace of mind knowing that your family is protected. The same way we purchase life insurance to help protect us against the unexpected, your will and power of attorney documents ensure that there is a plan in place for your family in the event of an emergency.

Don’t forget that it’s important to always review your insurance policies and your estate plan, to be certain your emergency plans reflect your current wishes and life situation. Online estate planning platforms like Willful, make it easy with free and unlimited updates.

Willful is an online estate planning platform that helps you make your legal will and power of attorney documents in less than 20 minutes. No lawyer or notary required!