Estate plans allow you to safeguard your own future, plan for your family’s financial future, and ensure your legacy and estate are carried on. Though many people are aware of the benefits of estate planning, people still have common misunderstandings about estate planning. An Omaha, NE, estate planning attorney can help you create an estate plan that benefits you and your loved ones and helps you understand the truth of estate planning.
Some people think that there is no need for estate planning until they are much older, and others believe that a will is sufficient for estate planning. These beliefs are not often accurate but are still common. Estate planning is a complex area of law, so this confusion is understandable.
Some common misunderstandings about estate planning include:
1. Misconception: You Don’t Need to Revisit an Estate Plan
It is very important to revisit your estate plan. This ensures that it still is what you intend, that it meets the legal requirements of the different documents, and that any changes in your life are appropriately reflected. Professionals tend to believe that you should have a regular review of your estate plan every few years.
It is a mistake to think you can create your estate plan and then walk away. Tax, property, and other laws can change over time, affecting your estate plan and even making it unenforceable. Changes in your family unit, losses in your life, and financial changes can all affect significant aspects of your estate plan.
2. Misconception: It’s Easy to Create an Estate Plan Yourself
It can be less expensive to create a will or estate plan without an attorney or other professional, but it can cost you and your loved ones more in the future. Estate planning is a complex area of law, and legal support helps you create an estate plan that meets your needs while being enforceable.
If estate planning documents are not legally valid, then creating them is a waste of time. Anything you were trying to avoid will no longer be prevented, such as keeping your loved ones out of probate or preventing your family from needing to petition the court.
3. Misconception: You Don’t Have Enough Assets to Justify an Estate Plan
Estate planning is not only for individuals or families who are very wealthy. If you have any personal property, you have assets and an estate. Even if those assets are not high-value, an estate plan allows you to make decisions about those assets, benefiting the loved ones or causes that you want to have those assets.
Estate plans also do more than address your assets, as they can ensure your children have a named guardian and financial stability or provide instructions for your own health care when you cannot.
4. Misconception: You Only Need a Will to Avoid Probate
There are several uses for a will, but they do not avoid probate court. Wills are documents that are submitted to the probate court and can state who you want to administer your estate and how they should administer it. More complex documents or designations are required to keep most or all of your assets from entering probate.
5. Misconception: You Can Trust Your Family to Distribute Your Estate
Everyone in a family is going to have their own wishes for how your estate is distributed, and these may not always match. Failing to provide a will or estate plan with the hope of your family distributing it correctly can result in chaotic and frustrating disputes between your loved ones. Establishing an estate plan can make clear your wishes and avoid loved ones dealing with a lengthy probate process and intrafamily disputes.
FAQs
Q: Who Inherits Without a Will in Nebraska?
A: If you die without a will in Nebraska, you have died intestate, and your estate passes to your surviving relatives in a set order. A surviving spouse may inherit the entire estate if you have no other descendants or parents.
If either parents or descendants survive, then the spouse receives the first $100,000 in the estate plus half the balance of the estate. Other than the surviving spouse, the assets in the estate may also pass to the children or other descendants of the deceased, their parents, the children and descendants of their parents, and other family members.
Q: How Can You Avoid Probate in Nebraska?
A: An estate can avoid probate if it is valued under a certain amount and qualifies for a small estate affidavit. You can also plan ahead with comprehensive estate planning to keep your estate out of probate regardless of its value.
Tools like revocable trusts give you complete control over your assets and keep them from going through probate after death. Other estate planning tools, like pay-on-death or transfer-on-death beneficiary designations, can keep certain accounts or assets out of probate.
Q: What Makes a Will Valid in Nebraska?
A: A will is valid in Nebraska when it is made by an individual 18 or older who is of sound mind and meets the following requirements:
- It is in writing.
- It is signed by the testator, the creator of the will, or it is signed by another person under the testator’s guidance and in their presence.
- It is signed by a minimum of two witnesses who each saw the testator’s signature or the directed signature by the testator.
Certain types of wills, such as holographic wills, may have unique requirements.
Q: What Is the Difference Between a Will Versus a Trust in Nebraska?
A: The primary difference between a will and a trust in Nebraska is that a will is a document that will become part of public records, while a trust is a private legal entity that does not go through the probate process.
Wills offer certain basic protections, including listing the distribution of your estate and the guardian of your children. Trusts offer further protection by protecting asset and beneficiary privacy and helping beneficiaries receive their inheritance more quickly and with less frustration.
Contact Stange Law Firm in Omaha
Estate plans can be made of many documents tailored to your own needs. If you are not sure what an estate plan can do for you, contact Stange Law Firm. We can help you determine your goals and how estate planning can help.
