Estate Strategies
Estate Strategy Essentials
Who Needs an Estate Strategy?
If you have people or causes you care about, you need an estate strategy. Planning ahead helps to align your estate with what's most important to you.
What is an Estate?
Quite simply, your estate is the total of all your assets. This includes your savings accounts, retirement plans, life insurance death benefits, home, car and personal property.
How Do I Get Started?
There are three documents that need to be part of every estate strategy:
- Will.
- Durable Power of Attorney.
- Advanced Medical Directive.
A will lets you decide who will:
- Receive your assets;
- Be a guardian to your minor children; and
- Carry out your wishes (i.e. personal representative/executor).
Many assets do not pass through the will. Some assets, like jointly owned property, will automatically transfer to the surviving owner by title. Life insurance death benefits and retirement savings will pass automatically to the designated beneficiary. You may want to consider using a trust in addition to your will if, for example, you have minor children, children with special needs, estate tax concerns, or to put conditions around how and when your assets are distributed after you die.
It is important to review your will periodically just as you should your insurance and investments, especially as you experience important life events.
A durable power of attorney authorizes another person or financial institution to make financial decisions on your behalf. The "durability" allows the designated individual or institution to act should you become seriously ill or incapacitated. A durable power of attorney ends when you die.
An advanced medical directive can take a couple forms. The first form is a medical power of attorney, which appoints someone to make medical decisions on your behalf when you cannot make them for yourself.
The second is a living will that informs your health care professional of your wishes should you become terminally ill and unable to communicate.
Protect Your Family
Review your beneficiaries. Life insurance and legal documents are cornerstones to protecting your family and the causes important to you. It is important to keep your life insurance contracts and investment accounts up-to-date and in-line with your wishes. Work with your Thrivent Financial representative to name or update the primary and contingent beneficiaries on your contracts, and to help you align those accounts with the wishes outlined in your will.
How Can I Make It Easier for My Family and Loved Ones?
Grappling with the death of a loved one is difficult enough. You can take steps now to make the financial challenges easier to deal with:
- List your assets and liabilities and who administers them, e.g. mortgages, insurance policies, retirement plans and investment accounts. Include the contact information for your financial, legal and tax professionals.
- Create a letter of instruction. This document does not have any legal authority, but it can help your survivors honor your wishes by describing in your own words your intent for your estate strategy. It can also include your wishes with respect to songs, readings and proceedings for your funeral/celebration of life.
- Share with your power of attorney/executor the location of your will and other legal documents, a list of your assets and any letter of instruction.
- Make known the names of your executor and power of attorney and the location of safe deposit box keys.
Take the Next Steps
- Meet with your financial and legal professional.
- For Thrivent Financial members, review Your Will Planning Guide, a complimentary benefit that shows how to prepare for drafting a will, minimize attorney costs and make other important provisions in addition to a will. (You must be logged in).
Thrivent Financial and its financial representatives do not provide legal advice. However, the advice and products we offer, including life insurance and retirement savings options, depend on an implemented estate strategy to help ensure that your objectives and wishes are met. Work with your Thrivent Financial representative and your attorney to develop a strategy to help meet your needs.
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