Estate Planning
Having a plan for after you die isn’t everyone’s favorite subject but being prepared for that is part of life. As a parent, you’re primary concern is to make sure your children are well taken care of. If this is the first time you’ve thought about this, ask yourself, “If something were happen to me today, what would happen to my kids?” This could be a huge reality check for you. A lot of people don’t plan that far ahead but it’s never too late start planning. This can be a scary thing to think about. If you’ve never put much thought into it, here are a few things to put down on paper and start with:
- Power Of Attorney. Once someone passes, there needs to be someone to make decisions on that person’s behalf to tie up any loose ends. If they have property or any assets that need to be liquidated and divided up amongst the family, giving someone power of attorney allows them to make decisions like that. Whoever gets this responsibility also is going to be the one making the arrangements for the children and signing any necessary documents.
- Life Insurance. Having a life insurance policy is a great way to plan for the worst. This kind of policy requires you to elect a beneficiary. This means that in the event that something happens to you, the beneficiary receives a sum of money that is dictated by the policy and how much you have paid into it. To find out more about taking out a life insurance policy on yourself, seek out a qualified life insurance agent that can sit down with you and discuss this.
- Making Out Your Will. This is something that should be fairly familiar to everyone. Your last will and testament is the legal document that outlines what you would like to happen to your things and how you’d like to divide up any money left over. If you’re a parent, this is where you would write in who you would like to take care of your kids. Choosing someone who can properly take care of them and provide for them might be a hard choice to make. You need to meet with this person, or people, and discuss the matter in order to plan accordingly. Many people elect to designate family members or close friends to be their children’s god parents.
The bottom line here is to make sure your kids are okay. Having a parent prematurely pass is one of the most difficult things a person can experience; doubly so for a child. What you need to take into account is how much your death will turn their world upside down. In all the preparations people make for these kinds of situations, a lot of parents forget to talk to their kids about it, or perhaps don’t want to due to the nature of the subject, which is understandable if they are very young children. Regardless, your child needs to know that you have made plans for them to be taken care of in the event of something happening to you.
Our group is in the process of providing these services to parents in the near future. www.aboutthechildren.org
About The Children, LLC's Blog 
Very useful information.