Your Estate
At lunch yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a short seminar that went over estates. The laws around it are interesting and vary from state to state in the US. Here’s a short summary.
Your United Estates
As a nice play on words, estates are what you own and owe. They include many things like your stuff, your cryptocurrency and even your social media accounts. It’s more than just cash and property.
It’s a common misconception that when you die, your estate goes to your spouse and kids. In reality, it’s a bit complex and the distribution of your estate on death defaults to different proportions.
Executors
These are the folks who will administer your estate. It was recommended that you get 2-3 reliable people to be your executors. You don’t need to ask their permission to make them one but on the other hand, they can refuse. If all your executors are flakes and refuse, the court will take over.
File those Documents
Don’t screw your next of kin over. Flesh out a will, living will and durable power of attorney. This will cover most bases and prevent undesirable results. What could these undesirable results be?
- Losing capacity to make medical decisions and getting a bad one made for you by some quack
- Making loved ones go through a horrible probate process so your underwear collection can be shared
- Not being able to disinherit awful family members
Long story short, cover your bases so that things go the way you want!