If you haven’t married or are divorced and widowed, you might think that estate planning isn’t your cup of tea. Yes! Estate Planning is essential for everyone, especially for a single person. But do you want to leave your life’s earnings/assets/property open for the court to decide where it goes? We don’t so! You have worked long and hard for what you have, and now you should have a say in who gets to inherit it. With that being said, you need to have a good estate plan that includes a Will or trust.

First of all, estate planning comes with its benefits. You can plan for marriage, retirement, healthcare, and death through a properly drafted estate plan. You should always be prepared even for the worst of situations, and estate planning is a great place to start. It doesn’t matter if you are married, single, widowed, or divorced. We all have a person, relatives, siblings, or friends we love and care about. So, to benefit our loved ones and ensure that we have a say, we should do estate planning.

Estate Planning for Singles

Estate planning for the singles is essential because we all need to find someone who will get all or part of our estate and who will carry forward with it. As a single person, if you have never been married and have no kids, it can be challenging to decide on whom to leave your estate. As a divorced or widowed individual without kids, it too can be challenging to choose a beneficiary. A beneficiary can and should be your children, close family member, or a good friend. However, a single person can also choose to leave everything or a part of their estate to a charity or other non-profit organization if they wish to.

You must know that if you die without an estate plan and are single, the court will find the closest relative and make them the beneficiary. This might work for you and already be aligned with your current wishes but for most, having control and a say means a lot. We always like to say it is nice to be able to control a piece of the future today and estate planning is just that.

Estate Planning benefits for Singles

Estate planning comes with lots of benefits, especially if you are single. If you are young and single and looking to get married, one-day estate planning can help protect your assets from being part of marital property. Why is this important? No one wishes to speak about divorce before getting married, yet divorce has become a more frequent topic of conversation. Estate planning can help the uncomfortable discussion of discussing a prenuptial agreement. This is also an essential consideration for those divorced or widowed yet back to dating. You never know when you will meet the one. So why not have your assets tucked away and well protected.

For singles, Estate planning is not just about asset protection or pass-through of assets to the person of one choosing. It is also essential to think about who will take care of you if you are sick, start suffering from dementia or end up in a car accident and cannot take care of yourself. Who will be responsible or, better yet, able to make medical decisions on your behalf? Who will be able to make financial decisions or access your finances to better take care of you once you cannot do it for yourself? Through proper planning and with the help of a good estate planning lawyer, these issues can be addressed.

What if you don’t have anyone to make a beneficiary?

In some cases, you may have no one around whom you trust, love, or would like to leave your assets. You may not have someone to act as your healthcare proxy or power of attorney or even care for your burial arrangements. In these rare but not uncommon cases, we suggest turning to a professional such as your attorney, accountant, or doctor to play this role in your life for a fee. It is always best to plan and know when the time comes, even if it is at a cost, there is someone to look after you and your affairs.

Being single isn’t easy, and planning when you are single can be tricky. Seeking proper guidance from an experienced attorney is always advised. Our law firm offers free consultations. So don’t wait to call us today to discover how planning can help you!

Are you single, and you are retiring soon? Then, this is the right time for you to do some estate planning. Estate planning for single people is essential as, after their death, there won’t be any proper heir or beneficiary to their assets. Thus, it is necessary to make appropriate estate planning if you are single or widowed.

What Does Estate Planning Include?

Following are some of the must-have items which should be there in any estate planning

The Importance of Estate Planning

It does not matter whether you are single or married while having an estate plan. This legal document provides safety and security to your loved ones and ensures that all your hard-earned belongings are kept safely with the people who care about you.

Thus, estate planning is not only a practical decision but also an emotional one. It offers you peace of mind before dying that all you love will be taken care of no matter what.

Tips for Singles About Estate Planning

Here are some tips that can come in handy for any single earner regarding estate planning.

Take Time to Make Your Estate Planning

Even if you are single, you need to have an estate plan. Primarily married couples give most of their belongings to their spouses. But since you are single, you do not have that option. So, you need to sit down and think carefully about who would be perfectly suitable to take care of your assets after you are gone. So, take your time and decide accordingly about the beneficiaries.

You Have to Have the Power of Attorney and Health Care Attorney

As stated above, you need to have a power of attorney and a health care attorney. They will take care of you even when you are alive and unable to make your decisions. A power of attorney will look after your financial matters while the healthcare proxy will care for your medical decisions.

So, while choosing people for both of these roles, you need to be careful. It will help if you trust them fully before giving them huge responsibilities.

Choose Your Heir

As you are single, you need to decide who to consider as your heir. Usually, people give it to their children or their spouse. But if you are unmarried, without any children, you need to identify your most loved one who you can trust completely with your hard-earned assets. Try to give this to the person close to you who can benefit the most from your investments.

Update the Planning

It is not necessary that you cannot change it once you have made the estate planning. You can change and update your estate planning until you die. So, if you ever feel like making some changes, you can correct them accordingly.

Conclusion!

Estate planning is essential for all people in the world, whether married or unmarried, and we hope that this article will guide all the single people working towards their estate planning! However, estate planning can be problematic contact us today to set up your free consultation with one of our experienced estate planning lawyers to see how planning can help you.