There are those who consider the exercise of estate planning and think of it as leaving behind a set of legal documents that express their wishes with regard to how they would like to see their remaining assets distributed after their death. This is of course accurate in a very general sense, but there are two ways of looking at it. Do you consider the contents of your estate to be a “remainder” that just happened to go unspent or the fruition of a carefully executed plan that ultimately resulted in a well-crafted legacy.
The thing that many people find hardest to accept when they come face-to-face with their own mortality is not entry into the “afterlife” as it were. The difficulty lies in the realization that you will no longer be there for your loved ones, and when that sense of permanency sets in it can be be quite profound. Once you think it through you may well find that responding to this feeling is what intelligent, heartfelt estate planning is all about.
If you anticipate needs that may arise among your family members after you pass away you can make sure that you have made provisions for them, but for many people this can require some specific goal setting which can impact your retirement budget.
Of course there are those that don’t have to concern themselves with these types of specifics due to the extent of their resources, but the truth of the matter is that many people do, even those who consider themselves to have been successful throughout their lives. So if you have legacy goals the sooner you identify them the better, and if you present them to your estate planning attorney he or she will do everything possible to help you devise a plan that will enable you to achieve all of your objectives.
Mr. Nirenstein is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Connecticut and the United States District Court. He is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations, and the Estate and Probate, Elder Law, Business Law and Real Estate Sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.
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