Over Half of U.S. Adults Don’t Have This

Fact: Over half of U.S. adults do not have a will or estate plan. If you are one of them, you are at risk for dying intestate and having the state determine what will happen to your home, life savings, and even to your minor children.

Things like an accident, home fire, or even death, are things that no one plans for but if you do not prepare for them, you could end up in a situation where you do not have the financial resources to recover or have a say in what happens.

When creating your estate plan there are several things to consider:

First, you need to identify is anyone depending on you financially? Do you have any heirs that you want to leave things to?

If you answered yes, then think about the future. If you were to die tomorrow, would they be able to financially sustain themselves? Would there be money to keep the lights on, buy groceries, pay the mortgage, or send the kids to college? If your salary was no longer available, how would that impact your family?

Once you have the answer to that question, you know how much money your family would need on an annual basis to maintain their lifestyle. You might need a life insurance policy to cover those expenses. For example, if your children are 9 or 10, you should get a life insurance policy that is going to pay for their living expenses all the way through college. That could be an additional 14 years that they need to be provided for.

Pro-tip: make a list of all of your assets and any specific details regarding who you want them to go to. Everything from your family china to your cars should be listed out. Otherwise, those items have to go through the probate process and the state will decide what happens to them.

You can write a will on your own or hire an attorney to help you. To help protect your family, give us a call and let us help you by securing a life insurance policy that can pay for all of your family’s living expenses if the unimaginable were to happen.