Estate planning is something that people often associate with the end of their life. They assume that they will write a will in the last few years of their life to give their assets to family members and beneficiaries. Maybe they’ll wait until they retire, because then they will have a fairly clear picture of how many assets they own when making the estate plan.
It is important to do estate planning for these reasons, but that doesn’t mean you should put it off until you are in your 60s or 70s. It’s often beneficial at a younger age. One example of this is if you just had a child. New parents may want to make estate plans, despite being decades from retirement.
Planning your child’s future
The benefit of making an estate plan as a new parent is that you can take steps to secure your child’s future. If you were to pass away unexpectedly, who would take care of them? With an estate plan, you can choose a guardian and set up all of the arrangements so that you know your child will always have the loving support system that they need.
Additionally, you can’t pass many of your physical or financial assets to your child while they’re still a minor. You may need to take steps to protect these assets, such as putting them in a trust that can pay out when your child is old enough. In this sense, you can give them financial security – or the ability to do things like paying for college tuition – even if you are no longer around to do so yourself.
The above are just two key areas that you should consider when drafting an estate plan. Carefully look into all of the options at your disposal.
