The last thing any of us want to think about is our death. But as we know, death is inevitable, and we never truly know when our time is up. Even those who are healthy and take all the necessary precautions to assure a healthy lifestyle could be stricken with a sudden accident, injury or illness without warning. With this in mind, it is very important to be proactive when making decisions regarding one’s estate planning.
Estate planning includes not only the distribution of your assets and property upon your death, but also decisions regarding your living will. A living will is not an actual will, but is a document that informs medical professionals as well as your family how to handle serious medical decisions that must be made if a person becomes incapable of communicating with others.
When you start working on your estate planning, you will need to find an honest, truthful and forthcoming person, typically a close friend, to become your executor. An executor plays a crucial role in your estate planning. Among the executor’s obligations are ensuring that property and assets are distributed per the deceased’s request, paying off debts and taxes and all necessary payments, finding and securing all the deceased’s assets, and finding and contacting all benefactors from the will or trusts.
It is often in a Sacramento person’s best interest to work with a lawyer familiar with estate planning in order to make certain that your trust administration decisions have been structured and formulated properly. This will make the executor’s life easier and will also give you some peace of mind.
Source: FindLaw, “What Does an Executor Do?” accessed on July 17, 2017
