Love lasts forever—but what happens to your assets when you’re gone? If you don’t have an estate plan, your loved ones might not inherit what you intended.
This Valentine’s Day week I’m talking about the law and love, but what I’m saying applies year-round.
What Happens Without a Will?
💔 If you pass away without a will, state law decides who gets your assets. And if you’re not married, your partner may get nothing—even if you’ve been together for years.
👨👩👧👦 Blended Families: If you have a blended family, default state law doesn’t pass anything to your stepchildren. If you want them to inherit anything, you MUST have a proper will.
💰 Life Insurance & Beneficiaries: Make sure you keep your beneficiaries up to date on life insurance policies, bank accounts, retirement accounts, and any other kind of account capable of having payable-on-death beneficiaries, especially after marriage, divorce, or having kids. Outdated beneficiaries can cause huge legal battles.
📜 Love Letters & Digital Assets: Ever thought about what happens to your romantic emails, texts, or social media? A digital estate plan ensures your online memories go to the right person and are handled correctly.
🏆 Special Items: In a will, you can leave specific items to specific people. If you want your best friend to have your record collection, just say so in your will. If you don’t have a will, the person handling your estate may not know of your wishes, and the default law doesn’t leave anything to friends.
📈 Business interests: If you own any part of a business, a proper will is a must so your wishes regarding your business interest are honored. It’s important the provisions in your will match the provisions in the business’ operating documents regarding what happens when an owner dies.
👰🏻 Remarriage: Sometimes people want to make sure none of their estate goes to their spouses’ new spouse if they ever remarry. That’s something your estate planning attorney can work with you to plan. If you don’t have any formal will or trust, though, you have no control over what happens to whatever share your spouse inherits.
🐶 Pets: What about your furry family members? Did you know you can provide for your pets in a will or trust? It’s true! You can say who you want to have custody of them and even set aside money for the pet’s care.
🎁 Charities: If making charitable donations upon your death is important to you, have a will made that says exactly what you want to donate to which charities. If you don’t have a will, by default laws nothing goes to charity.
📃 Powers of attorney: Wills are for handling your estate AFTER you die. What happens if you become unable to manage your health decisions or financial assets while you’re alive,? That’s where powers of attorney come in. Powers of attorney state clearly who you want to be in charge of making those decisions for you if you can’t make them yourself, how you want it to be determined that you’re incapacitated, and what decisions they can and can’t make. A power of attorney for health care can also state what you want in terms of heroic measures to prolong life and your wishes regarding organ donation. Powers of attorney make things much, much easier for the person who needs to take over for you when you need help.
❤️ Final Thought: Finally, a well-planned estate protects the people you love most. This Valentine’s Day, show love by making sure your affairs are in order. And for couples, while nothing says romance like confronting your mortality together, I advise not making estate planning your only gift to each other if you want to have a nice Valentine’s Day together next year, too. 😍
Have you started your estate plan? If not, now is the perfect time!
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