Many New York estate plans focus on the distribution of property. Choosing beneficiaries and determining the best way to divide property among them is an important element of any comprehensive estate plan.
That being said, people also have to choose trusted individuals to fulfill certain important roles in their estate plans. There are several positions of authority that people have to fill when establishing a comprehensive estate plan.
What types of authority do people typically need to consider in estate planning documents?
Personal authority
Estate planning can include a variety of living documents that take effect when someone experiences an incapacitating emergency or becomes permanently incapacitated due to illness or injury. Powers of attorney can protect people from guardianship and can authorize someone they trust to handle their finances when they are vulnerable. Health care proxies can make decisions regarding someone’s medical treatment when they cannot communicate their wishes on their own behalf. Testators have to select someone who is healthy and responsible enough to oversee their medical needs or their resources when they cannot handle such matters on their own.
Parental authority
One of the most important decisions a parent can make in an estate plan involves nominating the right person to take over their parental responsibilities if they can no longer provide for their children. Selecting a guardian is a decision that requires end up consideration and multiple difficult conversations with other people. Testators need to pick people who are capable of meeting their children’s needs and who are happy to step into that position of authority so that they don’t become resentful and mistreat the children later.
Authority over an estate or trust
Some people draft wills and use that one document to distribute their property to others when they die. Others create and fund trusts. Both can be viable solutions, and both require the ongoing effort of one specific person. The individual named as the personal representative of an estate or the trustee overseeing a trust can dramatically affect someone’s legacy after they die. Choosing a trustee or personal representative who is responsible, organized and ethical is of the utmost importance. People managing a trust or estate can diminish valuable resources through misconduct, greed or incompetence otherwise.
Choosing the right people to assign to positions of authority and updating those choices as necessary are both key elements of successful estate planning. Choosing the right people to empower is potentially even more important than choosing the right beneficiaries to inherit from an estate.
