The Six Elements of an Estate Plan

A lawyer is a learned gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies and keeps it to himself.

- Henry Bougham

If you google “essential estate planning documents,” you will find about 976,000 websites, many of which have three items on their list. These items are:

1.  a will
2. a general (financial) power of attorney
3. a health care power of attorney/living will

Depending on your source, a living will and a health care power of attorney might each get their own line item, or you might have a trust in the list you find, increasing the total to four. This list reflects the traditional use of estate planning going back decades: protect the client’s estate from the government when they die. However, while these documents are in fact essential, they do not account for other, more personal concerns.

Every individual affects the lives of the people around them. Each person has a worldview, a personal code of ethics, by which they live their lives. We believe that it is important to share that worldview with the people we care about most. Our clients’ financial legacies are important, but we believe their personal legacies are just as important.

With that in mind, we have put together a new list of the six essential elements of an estate plan

1. a will
2. a trust
3. a general (financial) power of attorney
4. a health care power of attorney
5. a living will
6. a legacy statement

Over the next several weeks, we will discuss each of these items in a little more detail. We hope to educate you regarding your estate planning options, but we also hope to show you how our approach to estate planning encompasses every aspect of your legacy, not just the financial part.

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Lawyer Joke of the Week:
Q: What's the problem with lawyer jokes?
A: Lawyers don't think they're funny, and no one else thinks they're jokes.

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