Step-by-Step Estate Planning!

How to Make an Estate Plan Without Leaving Things Out!

Before you begin the process of making a will, codicil or a living trust, we recommend that you first complete a full schedule of your assets and liabilities. It will help you to work out what assets you actually own, and identify your liabilities, before deciding who you would like to make gifts to and how. By having all the relevant details at your fingertips it will save a considerable amount of time in the preparation of your estate planning documents.

The document is also useful for document your choice of fiduciaries such as executors, successor trustees, healthcare agents etc.

In addition, by keeping this estate planning worksheet & document locator with your will, trust or other personal papers, it will greatly assist your executor in identifying and locating your assets and liabilities when the time comes.

In many situations, the persons who stand to inherit from you will be your family and friends. In reality, a lot of these people will often have been, and may still be, financially dependent on you. However, despite this obvious dependence, many of your assets and possessions may become frozen for a unnecessarily prolonged period during the probate of your estate. Needless to say, this can lead to an added financial strain on your family and friends and make an already demanding period more difficult for them.

The reality is that one of the biggest reasons for delays in the probate stems from a failure to locate assets and the important legal documents necessary to transfer legal title in those assets. The easiest way for you to avoid this common and unnecessary problem is to ensure that your executor is made aware of the location of all your assets and important legal documents. You can use this Estate Planning Worksheet & Document Locator document to notify your executors of the location of each of your assets and any important legal documents – such as your last will and testament, your title deeds, life insurance policies etc. By having all the relevant details at their fingertips, this document will greatly assist your executors in promptly locating and distributing your estate to your loved ones.

Simply complete this document setting out details of all your real estate, cash, securities, cars, personal property and business assets. Then place the form in a safe place making sure that some trusted member of family is made aware of its location. That’s it!

Forms Included:

- Estate Planning Worksheet & Asset Locator