How can these estate planning details affect your kids?

Florida parents and those elsewhere constantly have a lot on their minds. Even when their children are not physically around, they typically still tend to have thoughts about their kids and their kids’ needs. Of course, you may have recently begun wondering how you could ensure the well-being of your children if you are not able to provide their care.

Fortunately, estate planning offers a variety of options for addressing future needs of your family should you not have the ability to handle those needs, whether due to incapacitation or untimely demise. As a parent, you may have specific details that would help you create a plan that best suits the possible needs of your children.

What should you include?

If you do not know much about estate plans, you likely have still heard that having a will is important. When you have children, having a will is even more important because it allows you to name a guardian for your kids in the event that you and the other parent cannot provide care. A will is the best legal document for appointing a guardian, and doing so allows you to choose a person you trust and feel would raise your children in a similar way to you if possible.

In addition to a will, other estate planning measures that could prove useful to your children should the unthinkable happen include the following:

• Creating a trust that will protect assets for your children for their future inheritance or to provide funds to your children’s guardian to pay for care or both
• Taking out a life insurance policy to better ensure that adequate funds will be available for your children’s future care
• Appointing power of attorney agents to handle your medical and financial needs should you become incapacitated and need someone else to make decisions on your behalf and decisions that affect your children
• Choosing an executor and trustee to manage your affairs in efforts to ease the process associated with closing your estate

While some of these details may not seem to directly relate to the well-being of your children, they do more than you think. It is important to remember that, even if your children are no longer minors, having responsible adults in charge of important matters that will directly affect your kids’ lives could ease their stress in an already difficult time.