Communicate Louisiana Estate Essentials With Your Survivors

Yesterday I reveived a call from a nice woman who was quite concerned about her father. Her mother had died not too long ago and her father took a turn for the worse in the last few days and the outlook was not good.

As the woman explained, her father was very private about his financial affairs and the woman - his only child - had no idea what her father owned or even where his records might be.

Fortunately for this woman, I was able to assure her that this would not be a problem because when her mother died, I handled the succession and we made a complete and detailed listing of every asset her parents had on the date his mother died. It's unlikely things have changed much since then. She was comforted knowing that she had a starting place to go to.

She also wanted to know if there was anything she needed to do hastily since her father's passing may be imminent. I told her "No." I told her she simply needed to care for herself and her father in these final days, and then she can contact me after he dies to start the process of getting everything settled.

This story reminds me to remind you that it is important to communicate at least some basic information about your estate to your survivors. At a minimum, you should communicate:

1. That you have (or you don't have) a plan in place.
2. Where your important papers are.
3. Where they can find a listing of your assets and liabilities.
4. Any attorney or other advisor that you would like them to work with upon your death.

It would also be a nice bonus if you also give them informal instructions regarding your funeral and burial wishes, health care wishes, desires regarding the distribution of personal effects, and instructions regarding how to use your Power of Attorney, and instructions to your executor.

We cover all these things in our Estate Planning Portfolio that every one of our Louisiana estate planning clients leaves our office with and maintains during their lifetime. If you'd like to talk to us at no cost to determine whether you'd like to use our estate planning legal services to plan your Louisiana estate, send me an email at paul@rabalaislaw.com, or give our office a call at 225-329-2450.

Paul Rabalais

Comments

[Adana Emlak]

That's nice. Thank you for sharing