How to Plan a Loving Legacy

Spending time with family and friends during the holidays may have you wondering about what you will happen when you leave this mortal coil. So many questions come up!

• If something happens to you tomorrow will your spouse, children, or favorite charities receive the legacy you want for them?
• Who do you want to trust to handle your estate?
• Will they know where to find all your instructions and important documents?
• What happens if you become unable to manage financial or medical decisions?
• What about attorney fees and estate taxes – will those bills eat up the money you want your loved ones to have?

None of these questions are easy to think about. But not knowing the answers can keep a person up at night. Our mission is to help you find a measure of safety and peace of mind. That’s why we’ve brought LegacyLock to the table.

What Does Love Have to do with Estate Paperwork?

My husband’s younger brother died over Christmas in 2021 shortly after telling my husband he was over the worst of a flu. He was enjoying his job and looking forward to the new year. His “estate planning” was mostly focused on taking advantage of pension and savings opportunities. When he passed, the family – his beneficiaries – were left with a scrambled mess. No list of financial accounts and no login information for his computers or accounts were found. And, to complicate matters further, their mother was still the beneficiary for most of his accounts although she had passed away years ago.

It took months and months of hard work to pull together all the information and documentation required to complete the estate. Fortunately, he did not have a spouse or younger children depending on his income during that time, but the brother assigned as Personal Representative had to put his life on hold in order to properly address all the problems. One of the biggest issues was the lack of available money to pay for estate expenses like the house mortgage and utilities – the estate had to borrow money and liquidate invested funds at a loss in order to avoid foreclosure. The seven remaining siblings were left to decide among themselves how to divide up his personal items with very little guidance beyond very basic will and an accidentally discovered hand-written note specifying a few gifts from the estate.

If he had updated his will and account beneficiaries and provided documentation of assets and account access, the daunting task could have been much less of a burden. And that’s exactly what love has to do with estate paperwork. By leaving an organized and up to date estate and making sure the documents are accessible to your personal representative, you’re expressing how much you care for your loved ones.

How Can LegacyLock Help?

If you already have all your estate planning in place – congratulations!! A couple of things to keep in mind: Do make sure your beneficiaries know how to find your important documents (including logins and passwords) when the time comes. And try to review your plan every 5 years or when you have a significant change in your life.

For those of you who haven’t put your estate in order and may not be able to or want to pay $5,000 to $10,000 for an attorney produced estate package, LegacyLock offers an affordable answer. If you complete the forms and documents included in the package, you will have an estate to be proud of. You can even upload all your important documents and provide access to the people you’ve entrusted with managing things when you’re gone. Your loved ones won’t have to spend as much time agonizing over your legacy. You’ll have given them the gift of a smoother path forward with more space to manage their grief. A gift of love.

Next Steps:

No matter what your stage in life, the Retirement Game Plan may be just what you need to find ways to smooth out the bumps in life. Test your retirement plan with a free review. If you’ve been telling yourself you need to plan your estate, try LegacyLock with a free 30 day trial.

LegacyLock Disclosure:
Legal documents written by Attorneys. Do-it-yourself estate document software licensed from Estate Documents Pro, LLC. This site provides general information about legal topics. MyLegacyLock.com and My Legacy Lock LLC, and Estate Documents Pro, LLC are not law firms and do not provide legal or tax advice. This site, and the products available on this site, are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. You should consult with an attorney and tax advisor licensed to practice in your state for advice if you have questions about your specific circumstances.

Retirement Analyzer Disclosure:
The information provided by these projections and calculators is for illustrative purposes only. Estimates included are based on information supplied by the client such as estimated Social Security benefits, pension benefits, projections of cost of living increases, inflation rates, and federal and state income tax rates. Current federal income tax tables are used in certain calculations. All of these are subject to change and will have an effect on the long range outcome shown in the analysis. Any interest rates are hypothetical and are not meant to represent any specific investment. Thomas Gold Solutions, LLC has done the due-diligence to maintain the accuracy of the information and calculations, but the assumptions do not encompass all situations. Thomas Gold Solutions, LLC does not make any guarantees on the outcome of any recommendations made based upon the above information. The projections or other information generated by this report regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of future results.