The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused so many people to feel stressed out, and thinking about the future when you can’t even know what tomorrow brings is far from easy. Statistics show that many people decided to write a will in the previous months, worried about what might happen to their estate if something happens to them. This is a complicated task that could cause a lot of stress and anxiety, so it’s important to prepare everything and stay calm during the process. Doing this can be quite challenging and people often don’t know what they need to do or who to turn to, so having a plan and knowing what needs to be done is the only way to stay focused and complete all the steps on time.
Talk to your family
In order to be able to organize everything smoothly, you need to talk to your family members and let them know what you’re planning to do. You’ll get different reactions and should be prepared to hear a lot of questions about what your motive behind all of this is, but you also need to make them understand your reasons. This is especially important if you’re a mom dealing with a lot of stress.
Explain why this is important to you and why you want to do it, and don’t forget to tell them how you plan to organize everything in as many details as you can. This won’t be an easy conversation, so you need to stay in control at all times and approach the situation carefully. Keep in mind that your children will have a hard time hearing these things out, no matter how old they are, so stay calm and don’t lose your cool.
Make a list
Sometimes it’s easy to forget everything that we own and if you want to have a say in who gets what, you need to make a list. Start with your most valuable possessions – your vehicles and properties, for instance – and decide what you want to do with them. After that, think about other stuff you own and who you want to leave them to.
Lots of us like to pass on sentimental things to those special people in their lives, even though these things seem like they have no value at all. That’s something you have to include in your will as well and make sure those things end up where you want them to. Lastly, if you worked with a charity and want to leave a few things to them, list those items and have your lawyer take care of that.
Find help
You won’t be able to do everything on your own, especially if you want to do it by the law, so find a professional lawyer to help you organize everything. Find a great estate planning lawyer who will help you protect your interests and ensure everything is done in accordance with your wishes.
Great lawyers will also help you take care of the taxes and other legal matters that need to be done right. They will also save you a great amount of stress because they’ll go through everything with you, checking your every move and helping you handle everything more easily.
Create a will
After all these steps, you need to write a will that will allow you to distance yourself from the estate planning process and focus more on your wishes. After you organize everything, you can think about some important things you want to leave to your family or friends, and writing a will is the best way to do that.
This is important even if you have everything planned out, since this is an opportunity to tell everyone why you’ve made certain choices. In addition to that, people use their will in case they change their minds and want to have their possessions handled differently than they’ve planned in the beginning.
If you know all the details about how estate planning goes, you’ll be able to organize everything leaving stress out of the equation. Certainly, this is probably the hardest thing you’ll have to do in your life and it’s only natural to take a moment to think why it’s important to have all this set up in advance. Once everything’s done, you’ll feel relieved and all the anxiety will disappear – and that’s the best way to know you’ve made the right call!
