In Estate Planning Awareness Week (17th to 23rd October in the US) we highlight the importance of expecting, and preparing for, the unexpected. Leaving your affairs in disarray can be a nightmare for your loved ones. Here are five things you can do to make life easy for those left behind if you die unexpectedly.
Estate planning: expecting the unexpected
Death is one of life’s certainties, but we never know when it is going to happen. We all hope for a long and healthy life but some of us do, unfortunately, check out early due to accidents and illnesses.
Losing family members is an extremely painful experience at the best of times, and always throws up a lot of unenviable administrative tasks. That’s why you should do everything that you can to make life easy for those you would leave behind if you were to pass away suddenly.
Here are six practical estate planning tasks you can complete now to ensure that your financial affairs are in order, should anything unexpected happen to you.
Estate planning: six things to do now to make life easy for your loved ones
- Make a will
A will makes it clear what should happen to your money, your property and your possessions when you die. If you die without a will, the state will decide how your estate will be distributed and that could be very different to your own wishes.
If you have children, your will should say who you would like to have guardianship of your children after you pass away. You can also use a will to dictate what you want to happen at your funeral, to leave money to charity and to maximise tax relief on your estate for your loved ones.
In the UK, 50% of adults don’t have a will. Make sure you’re not one of them and spare your family potential problems such as disputes over who gets what, an unnecessarily large inheritance tax bill and a lack of clarity over who takes responsibility for your children.
Once you have a will, keep it up-to-date, especially after any major life changes. If you need any assistance with this, Infinity can help.
- List your assets
You have probably spent years building up your assets, so it makes sense to keep a comprehensive record of them. Upon your passing, this inventory serves as a handy roadmap for your loved ones, heirs, and legal representatives, ensuring a smoother transition of your estate.
By documenting all your assets, including cash holdings, real estate, investments, insurance policies, personal belongings, and business interests, you provide clarity and avoid potential confusion after your death. You simplify the probate process making it easier to determine the overall value of your estate and ensure all your assets are passed on. There are billions of dollars’ worth of unclaimed assets around the world – don’t let them be yours!
- Tell someone where everything is
Your will and list of assets are useless if nobody can find them after you die. You need to ensure that a trusted individual and/or the executor of your will know how to locate all the documents required during the probate process.
Luckily, there’s an app for that! There are numerous end-of-life planning apps and websites available where you can keep all your important documents safely in one place. Or you can simply keep all the information in a computer file, backed up in the cloud.
It’s important to note that these apps are a tool that facilitates your estate planning. They absolutely don’t replace the need to consult an estate planning professional to plan your financial affairs in order to minimise inheritance tax on your estate.
- Safeguard your digital legacy
Preserving your digital legacy is becoming increasingly important in the digital age. It’s a good idea to appoint a trusted individual to be responsible for managing and organising your online accounts after your death. You should specify your preferences for the management or deletion of social media accounts in your will or through platform-specific settings.
Provide the trusted individual with usernames, passwords, and access instructions for your email and social media accounts and any other online services you use. Don’t forget to update and review this list regularly to ensure it remains current and relevant.
- List regular payments to be cancelled
To ensure that any unnecessary payments do not continue to be made after you die, make a list of regular direct debits and other payments that go out of your bank accounts including bills, magazine or club subscriptions, charity donations and insurance policies. Having a record of all this can speed up the process of tidying up your affairs after you’re gone.
- Take professional estate planning advice
A professional financial adviser can provide the relevant advice to ensure that your legacy is passed on to your loved ones in the most tax-efficient way possible. Expats face additional estate planning issues as they usually have assets in more than one jurisdiction and face issues of residency and domicile and a cross-border specialist can advise on these.
Infinity’s financial advisers have a wealth of experience in providing specialist estate planning advice to expatriates in Asia. They can help you navigate the challenges that you face and get your affairs in order.
Contact us for a chat about your estate planning and will writing requirements. We’d love to guide you in protecting your family financially against all eventualities to give you peace of mind.
A leading provider of expat financial services and wealth management services across Asia.
