Click here to get this post as a PDF and read it later!
It’s not something we necessarily want to think about too often, especially as we want to live in the moment. Leaving an inheritance for your loved ones though is something you want to be mindful of because you never really, truly know what’s coming around the corner of life.
With that being said, putting preparations in place, even if it doesn’t feel like the right time to do so, is useful to do. From the moment you have dependents or assets, is an opportunity to ensure your loved ones are left with the assets or finances. Not everyone wants to leave it to people they know, so expressing your wishes and putting plans in place, is important to do.
Speak to a financial advisor about what funds are available
To help understand what finances you have available, speak to a financial advisor. It’s not just your physical assets that you need to think about but everything else that would be provided to loved ones under insurance – like your life insurance for example.
Speaking to a financial advisor will help to get everything laid out on paper so that you can discuss what should be going where. This may change over time but by getting advice from a financial professional, it’ll help provide you with some structured direction in organizing your finances and any assets you may be able to give should you pass too soon.
Make use of legal aid for offering properties in trusts
To help ensure all of your assets are fairly distributed, it might be a good idea to seek legal aid. There may be a partition of trust property whereby you want to offer a property that’s split amongst a number of recipients.
This type of legality is useful for those who have a number of children or simply want to provide it to a number of beneficiaries, rather than just one individual. Getting legal aid is useful anyway in general when it comes to leaving an inheritance for your loved ones, so it’s worth enquiring about.
Create a will and review it regularly
To help ensure there’s a written expression of wish, make sure you’ve created a will and where you’re able to, review it regularly. This is important because everyone who has a will is likely to change it at least once in their lifetime.
Events happen, whether that’s the loss of your partner, divorcing your partner or simply having a change of heart in terms of who gets what. Creating a will is going to help legally to ensure your wishes on what goes where are honored.
Set up a Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney gives the attorney selected, the legal authority to help deal with third parties whether that be the banks or the local council. It helps those in a situation where they’re no longer able to make the decisions themselves and therefore need a trusted individual to do it all for them.
This is often something that’s required in a person’s later years, however, it’s a setup that needs to be done early on as you never know what could happen before the natural progression of aging kicks in.
Be sure to speak to your loved ones too when it comes to leaving an inheritance and that way, they’ll know what to expect should anything happen. Planning and preparation are key!
