Importance of Estate Planning

If you are like most people, youestate attorneys have worked hard to accumulate assets during your lifetime. Whether you're a young parent in your 20s or a baby boomer quickly approaching retirement age, it's important to consider and take action towards establishing an estate plan. Estate planning is an ongoing, methodical process that is designed to help us achieve our personal and family goals, even after we pass. With a comprehensive estate plan in place, you can ensure that your wealth will go to those you want it to go to. Your estate plan will enable you to achieve your personal goals long after you're gone.

If your answer is yes to any one of the following questions, then you would certainly benefit from consulting with a northern Virginia estate planning attorney from HALE BALL MURPHY, PLC Carlson Baumgartner Murpy, PLC. Our  are ready to give you the legal support you need.

• Do you want to enjoy a comfortable retirement without pinching pennies?
• Do you want to have money or insurance for long-term care?
• Do you want to pass down a legacy without losing your life savings to nursing home care?
• Do you want to leave an inheritance for your children or loved ones?
• Do you want to provide for a special needs child?
• Do you want to leave specific instructions for a minor child's inheritance or for an adult child who is careless with money?
• Do you want to spare your estate from Medicaid estate recovery?
• Do you want to have an appropriate life insurance policy that will care for your loved ones?
• Do you have minor children? If so, wouldn't you prefer to appoint a guardian as opposed to leaving that decision to the state?

Estate planning can be a vehicle for managing your major financial resources and properties so they can be disposed of to your own advantage. When estate planning is begun early in life, it can help provide much needed financial security for your family throughout several generations. Just a few advantages of estate planning include: 1) it can allow you to enjoy retirement and live life fully, 2) it allows you to pass your property to others according to your wishes and desires, 3) it can provide guardianship for minors, 4) it can spare your family the hassle and expense of probate if desired, and 5) it can strategically decrease or eliminate certain taxes.

Since no one can entirely predict or prevent accidents or illness, it's important to begin planning regardless of your age or wealth. Given the choice, and you do have a choice, wouldn't you prefer to decide how your assets and property are distributed and to whom? Keep in mind that if you chose not do an estate plan, the state where you live will do a plan for you. Estate planning is an essential component to everyone's overall estate plan, this cannot be stressed enough. To get started planning for the distribution of your assets while minimizing court costs and legal fees, contact a Fairfax or Annandale estate planning attorney from HALE BALL MURPHY, PLC Carlson Baumgartner Murphy, PLC today. We can be reached at 703-591-4900.