Think that estate planning is just for the rich? While passing along assets may not matter as much if you don’t have a lot, there are still very important estate planning steps that you need to take in New York.
First, you may still have assets, even if your bank account is empty. What is going to happen to your home and any land that you own? What about your car? You want to divide these things—and many smaller items—even if you’re not handing out tens of thousands of dollars to your kids.
Next, you also want to look into creating a health care power of attorney. This way, if something happens to you and you can’t make your own medical decisions—if you’re in a coma, for example—then someone else has the power to make them for you. Even if this is a worst-case scenario, you want to plan for it just in case.
You may also be interested in creating a living will, which can make some of these medical decisions in advance. For example, maybe you know already that you want your children to keep you on life support for as long as possible—or maybe you don’t want it to be used at all. Either way, since you know what you want, you can put that in a living will and use the power of attorney to let one of your children make all other choices.
The key here is to know that medical decisions still have to be made, so estate planning is important no matter what, and you need to know what steps to take.
Source: daily worth, “6 Estate Planning Steps Even Broke People Need to Take,” Liz Weston, accessed Jan. 14, 2016
