The majority of any estate planning attorney’s clients are older, often retired people who want to make sure their families can receive an inheritance. For younger, single people, however, the idea of creating an estate plan occurs about as often as the idea of joining the AARP. While it’s true that many people aren’t likely to need their estate plans any time soon, they still need to create one as soon as possible. Some single people, in some situations, have a greater need for estate planning than do older adults. Here’s why:
You need someone to be there.
Let’s say you get sick. And not just sick, but so sick that you’re hospitalized and unconscious without the ability to talk to your doctors. Who makes medical decisions for you then? If you don’t have an estate plan it will probably be up to a court to select someone to do it, and that person will probably be a parent or close relative. If you want to choose someone else, you’ll need an estate plan that includes an advance medical directive.
You may have more than you think.
If you have a home, job-provided life insurance policy, retirement account, or any personal property at all, you’ll want to reconsider the notion that you don’t have much to give away after you die. Many young people have more property than they realize.
Even if you don’t have that much, what you do have may not go to whom you want it to if you should die. If you have a partner and want your partner to inherit, you’ll have to make an estate plan as your state’s laws don’t really care who you are with and how long you’ve been in a relationship. If you’re not married your property will pass to your parents, siblings, or other relatives based on who survives you after you die.
You can learn about these and other estate planning issues through any of our ongoing free seminars. Our August seminars will be held on August 7 in Greensboro, so contact us for more information.
