As you celebrate the Fourth of July and all it represents – freedom, independence, and the pursuit of happiness – take pride in the ultimate American liberty: the right to decide your own affairs, even after death or in the event of incapacity. An estate plan, specifically a Life & Legacy Plan, is the way to express your liberty. It’s your personal Declaration of Independence. Sounds powerful, right? How can your estate plan give you freedom?
Here’s how: Creating a Life & Legacy Plan (a unique estate planning process used in my practice) preserves your self-determination, protects your family, grows your wealth, and defines your legacy on your own terms. Your Life & Legacy Plan declares your autonomy from the courts, state laws, and conflicting viewpoints that could unravel your final intentions.
You Have a Plan: It Just Might Not Be What You Want
The first thing to know is that you already have a plan for what happens in the event you become incapacitated or when you die. You may not know what the plan is, and truthfully, you might not like what the plan is! The government has created a plan for you, without your input. Or, you may have already created your own plan but didn’t really understand the choices you made, or you haven’t made any updates since it was created.
When you have a Life & Legacy Plan, you get to override the government’s plan for you with your choices. YOU get to decide exactly how you want your assets collected and distributed – whether that’s providing for certain loved ones over others, leaving assets to chosen family members who may not be related by blood or marriage, but who have become close kin to you by choice, or donating portions to charitable causes near and dear to your heart.
With a Life & Legacy Plan in place, you maintain that plan throughout your lifetime, so as your assets, life, and the law change, so does your plan. Your plan needs to change, evolve, and grow along side you, otherwise it’s not even worth the paper it’s written on.
The Liberation of Making Your Decisions With Eyes Wide Open
Planning for incapacity or death is the equivalent of planning for your best possible life for you and for the people you love. “Eyes wide open” decision-making allows you to be at peace with accepting that one day you will die, or become incapacitated, and you want your family and assets to be cared for in a certain way when that happens. It leads to the most optimal use and allocation of your resources throughout your life and makes things as easy as possible for the people you love. When you consider how you want to be cared for in the event of your incapacity, and document those choices, you can then ensure you have the necessary close personal relationships to deliver on our desires. Otherwise, you are just leaving it up to happenstance…or a judge.
A Declaration of How You Want to Be Remembered
Your Life & Legacy Plan represents your final declaration of values and life experiences you’ll impart on loved ones and the world at large. Use this opportunity to put your final stamp on how you want your individuality and life’s purpose remembered, rather than leaving it up to chance, or leaving a legacy of mess and drama.
All of our plans include a Life & Legacy recording that guides you to express your deepest hopes, guiding wisdom, and ethical frameworks acquired over decades of success, struggles, and personal growth. This recording is the most meaningful gift your family will cherish and carry into future generations.
Let Me Be Your Life & Legacy Planning Partner
Life & Legacy Planning is what I do. I work with you to craft a plan on your terms, taking into account what you want, not what someone else has decided for you. And once you’ve created your plan, you can rest easy knowing your wishes will be honored, your loved ones cared for, and your legacy preserved.
Contact my office to learn more about how we help you exercise freedom over your own choices. Click here to schedule a consultation.