How to pick an estate planner: Figure out what suits you, then who
|
|
The estate you leave behind — everything from your cash and investments to the family home and heirlooms, and even reflections of your traditions and values — will go a long way toward shaping how you’re remembered by your family. Whatever the size of your estate, when it comes to getting help planning for that day and making sure your assets are distributed according to your plan, you don’t want to hire just anyone. Unfortunately, unlike with many professions, anyone can call themselves an estate planner, even though estate planning is one of the most complicated financial transactions you’ll ever be involved in. “Anyone can say they’re an estate planner,” says Michael Wald, an estate-planning attorney at Wald & Associates in Richardson. “You see it all the time on TV. It means nothing. They are no more estate planners than your grandmother.” The first step is to decide how much estate planning you need. If you make an average income and don’t have a complicated estate, a family attorney can draw up a simple will for you. That’s the bare minimum that everyone should achieve, because dying intestate — without a will Source : accessmylibrary.com |