Many people living in Georgia hold off on drafting wills and other estate planning documents until they experience a significant life event, such as a marriage or the birth of a child. However, creating an estate plan offers benefits, regardless of whether you plan to marry or have children, and a plan does not have to be complex or elaborate to be effective.
According to Kiplinger, unless you put together an estate plan that dictates what you want to happen to your assets and affairs, you leave these important decisions up to the state of Georgia. There are other reasons, too, to put a plan together, and here are just a few.
To leave funds to charity
If you have one or more nonprofits you support, consider naming them as beneficiaries so you may help them continue to carry out their good work.
To make beneficiary designations
Even if you never plan to have kids, you probably still want a say in what happens to your legacy. Maybe you have a sister, brother, niece, nephew or other loved one you want to inherit some of your assets after your death, and creating a will gives you a chance to state as much.
To plan for the unexpected
Many estate plans include one or more kinds of advance health care directives. These are legal documents that allow you to specify if you want to become an organ donor or if you want doctors to resuscitate you, should the need arise, and so on.
Once you put a plan together, you are going to want to designate someone to be your executor. This individual sees to it that your wishes come to fruition while managing and closing your estate.
