Having a comprehensive Estate Plan is key to ensuring that your wishes become a reality in the future. To this end, it is essential to understand many of the common mistakes or challenges that may arise with Estate Planning. These could frustrate your intended purpose and leave your heirs without property or cause conflict among family members.
The simplest way to avoid these issues is to understand their potential and to draft Estate Plans in ways that aim to prevent these problems. Our knowledgeable attorneys at Nelson Elder Care Law can help explain issues with Estate Planning in Georgia and craft plans that take these issues into account.
The main purpose of an Estate Plan is to ensure that one’s property moves to the intended heirs at the proper time. For the most part, you are able to nominate any person to be a Beneficiary. However, this choice may give rise to unexpected complications that could limit the effectiveness of a plan.
A common example is naming a person who is currently a child as an heir or Beneficiary. By law, children cannot directly inherit property above a certain value. If a child becomes an heir after a testator’s death, that property may need to wait in a Trust until the child comes of age.
Similarly, selecting the right Beneficiary can impact the tax liability of an Estate. While Georgia has no Estate tax, many other locations have inheritance taxes that could limit the potential value of an Estate. As a result, choosing the right people or organizations as Beneficiaries can help to maximize the value of an Estate.
When most people craft their Wills, they imagine this document as a tool to move property after their death. However, the law also views a Will as a way to override the state’s law concerning Intestacy. The state’s Intestacy law, present in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 53-2-1, states what will happen to property if a person dies without a Will.
Even if an individual has a Will, this law may still come into play. This can happen when a court invalidates the document or if the Will does not specifically mention assets that a decedent had in their possession. Because of this, it is important to recognize Georgia’s Intestacy rules as a common issue with Estate Planning.
One thing that all Estate Plans should have in common is specificity. With the purpose of an Estate Plan being to provide Assets to other parties, it stands to reason that the best plans will clearly identify those Assets and parties. Because many Estate Plans aim to limit the scope and influence of Probate, having a Will and other testamentary documents that mention assets and heirs with specificity can serve to shorten this process.
Similar concepts apply to Trusts and other forms of Estate Planning documents. Providing as much detail as possible increases the legal power of these documents and limits the ability of others to question their authenticity.
Having a clear Estate Plan can ensure that your property moves to your heirs after your death and help you live in comfort for the coming years. Even so, there are many common mistakes that can arise while crafting an Estate Plan. Recognizing these issues and drafting documents in a way that avoids their influence benefits both Estate Planners and their Beneficiaries. Talk with our team at Nelson Elder Care Law today to avoid many of the common issues with Estate Planning in Georgia.
