October is known as Estate Planning Month, which means this is the perfect time to consider your estate planning strategy. What are the benefits of creating digital wills and trusts? Read on to learn a little more about digital estate planning.
All in One Place
With the right digital estate planning tool, you should be able to create and store wills, trusts, guardianship instructions, and other legally binding estate plan documents. Indeed, one of the biggest advantages of digital estate planning is that all your important documents are stored in one secure online location, for one price. It’s kind of like having a digital vault, so you can access your most critical estate documents at any time, from any place.
Easy to Review & Revise
Estate planning is not a one-time event. Creating your initial estate plan documents is simply the first step in what will be an ongoing process—and digital estate planning makes it easier to review and revise your estate documents as needed. It’s especially important to do these kinds of reviews after a major life milestone such as marriage, divorce, having children, or a death in the family. Reviews are also a good idea when state or federal laws change, which can affect certain estate planning documents. When looking for a digital estate planning tool, consider choosing one that allows for unlimited revisions, like HUECU’s estate planning solution.
Share the Important Stuff
You may want to share various estate planning documents with your family members, the person you’ve named to have Power of Attorney over your estate, lawyers, financial managers and anyone who’s a beneficiary of your assets. (Want more information about naming beneficiaries? Click here!). A digital estate planning system makes it easier to share important documents and key information, so that the right people are in the loop about your choices for the future.
Get Expert Support
Estate planning doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are a number of different factors to consider. Having the support of experts can make the estate planning process faster, smoother and more straightforward. Most digital estate planning tools offer access to a range of consultants who are available online or over to phone to chat with clients. These advisory staff members may include not only legal experts, but also coaches and other service representatives who know the ins and outs of creating an estate plan. Ideally, your digital estate planning service should also offer up-to-date advice regarding new state and federal policy which might affect your plan.
Take Care of Loved Ones
Ultimately, whether you take a more traditional estate planning path or choose to do your plan digitally, it’s important to have an estate plan in pace. A legally binding estate plan helps to eliminate uncertainty for loved ones and to protect your wishes when it comes to the important stuff: like who would care for your children in the event of an accident, who inherits your assets, and what healthcare plans you wish to put in place if you can’t advocate for yourself. Check out this presentation from HUECU to learn more about what estate planning means and how to take the next steps.
Curious to Learn More?
As a benefit of belonging to HUECU, Credit Union members can take advantage of the financial wellness program THRIVE, which brings award-winning finance education and expertise. On Thursday November 9th, HUECU members can tune in to a free estate planning webinar. Tune in to this online seminar to learn more about what estate planning is, along with the best ways to help ensure that you and your family have all your affairs in order. Webinar leaders will share more about what questions to ask, what documents you need, and how to coordinate everything. You can register online here.
