Estate Planning: Your Shelter in the Storm

Hurricane season officially began in June, but we are nearing peak hurricane season for North Carolina (mid-August to October). And despite the best efforts and intentions of meteorologists, the precise path, time of arrival, and strength of these potentially devastating storms cannot always be predicted with total accuracy. Local governments do their best to convince people residing in or visiting vulnerable areas to prepare for the worst. Many heed the warnings. Sadly, others do not and often suffer tragic consequences.

Hurricane season serves as an apt metaphor about the importance of estate planning. Like meteorologists, whose host of sophisticated scientific tools and resources do not necessarily enable them to predict a hurricane’s path and strength, neither you nor I can predict exactly what the future holds.

Fortunately, like emergency response planners, we can plan for the future’s possibilities. That's what estate planning is all about. You, taking the necessary steps to protect your financial well-being, provide for your loved ones after you are gone, and preserve an enduring legacy for your family and beyond. No matter what storms of life are headed your way, a solid estate plan will guide you and your loved ones through them and shelter you from the consequences of failing to plan.

Your estate plan can also help prepare you and your spouse for changes to your physical well-being, through incapacity planning, healthcare directives, durable powers of attorney and more. Access to the DocuBank Healthcare Directives Registry, which we provide to members of our Client Care Program, can prove invaluable in this regard. It ensures that your healthcare directives are immediately available to hospitals and family members in the event of an emergency. It also provides vital information to doctors, such as medical conditions, allergies, and emergency contacts.

One aspect of effective estate planning that some families overlook—at their peril—is the importance of keeping their plan up to date. The fact is an outdated plan can actually be worse than having no plan at all. If we prepared your plan, we recommend that you contact us to review your plan at least once every three years (or earlier whenever a significant change has taken place in your situation or that of a family member). We can also update your DocuBank account to reflect any changes to your health or wishes concerning whom you would like to make decisions for you or the care you would like to receive if you cannot speak for yourself. If Privette Legacy Planning did not prepare your estate plan, we can still take a look at what you have. Check out our Plan Audit service!

By keeping your estate plan up to date, you can truly prepare for the unexpected and help ensure that everyone you love (and everything you own) will be protected — today, tomorrow, and always.

Phone: (919) 678-5761 Text: (833) 260-2728

Email: admin@leavealegacync.com