Understanding Estate Planning in Stillwater

Estate planning in Stillwater, Oklahoma is important. We all have estates, big or small, that require managing in one way or another.

Your estate is comprised of all the things you own — your home, furnishings, clothes, books, cars, bank accounts, investment portfolios, insurance policies, etc.

Everyone’s estate differs in what it is comprised of and its complexity. But one thing is the same for everybody: you can’t take any of it with you when you pass away.

It is vital that you leave instructions specifying who gets what when you pass away and that you accomplish this in a manner that minimizes the costs to your loved ones in terms of taxes and legal fees.

Estate planning in Stillwater is the means for ensuring that your desires are carried out after you die or become incapacitated. Continue reading to find out more information about estate planning in Stillwater.

What is Estate Planning in Stillwater?

Estate planning in Stillwater is an ongoing process that involves the creation of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations to specify what is to be done with your estate when you have passed away or become incapacitated.

Estate planning will give you the ability to exercise control over what becomes of your estate in the following ways:

by specifying how and to whom your estate will be transferred when you have passed away;
by specifying how your estate is to be managed if you become incapable of managing it yourself;
by creating instructions for your care if you should become incapacitated;
by allowing for the transfer of your business interests upon your retirement, disability, or death;
by naming the beneficiaries of your insurance policies, banking accounts, and investment portfolios; and
by taking steps to avoid probate and to minimize estate taxes.

Who Needs Estate Planning?

Though people usually only think of estate planning more as they get older, estate planning in Oklahoma is for everyone, not just the elderly. Nobody can predict when they are going to die, so everyone should take the necessary steps in advance to provide the most for their loved ones, to minimize estate taxes and probate costs, and to make it less complicated for their estates to be inherited after they die.

Estate planning in Stillwater is as equally important for people with modest estates as it is for wealthy people. In reality, good estate planning may benefit a family of modest means more than it would a wealthy family, because people with modest means are the least able afford the cost of probate and the loss of money to estate taxes.

Furthermore, estate planning ought to be as important to single people as it is for married people. Unless you happen to make arrangements beforehand, when you pass away or become incapacitated the state may appoint a stranger to manage your affairs. This person in all likelihood will not know what was most important to you or what would benefit your family the most.

To conclude, it should be noted that each person’s circumstances are different and each one’s best approach towards estate planning will be determined by his or her particular needs and desires. An experienced Stillwater estate planning attorney can help you in selecting the options that best suit your circumstances.