Estate planning is for everyone and should not be ignored. Are you recently married? Have you recently entered parenthood? Are you nearing retirement? Do you have any assets or loved ones? Do you have any specific requests of how your estate should be handled when you pass away? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should begin estate planning now, if you haven’t already. Everyone should at least have a: last will and testament; living will; durable power of attorney; and a designation of a health care surrogate.
In addition to these basic documents, there are some more ‘modern’ considerations to take into account in your Estate Plan. In this time of changing technology, you need to consider your digital assets in your estate plan, as well as your tangible ones. Some of these digital assets have actual value, some are purely sentimental, and some may be neither. Do you have bills set to be automatically paid from your account? Do you have social media accounts with sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.? Do you own digital music through iTunes? E-books through Amazon? How would you feel about someone posting a memorial page for you on a social media accounts? You should keep a copy of all your online accounts, log-in information and passwords (banks, social media, Netflix, etc.) along with your estate planning documents. It is important to provide clear and specific instructions in your will as to your intentions for any digital assets you may have.
