Whether you’re a Louisiana resident with a sprawling estate, a modest family home, or a small nest egg, protecting your assets is an important part of safeguarding your family’s financial future and securing your legacy. An estate plan goes much further than just creating a will. A proper estate plan protects your home, allows you to make the most of the savings you worked so hard all your life to collect, and makes things easier for your family after you pass. An estate planning lawyer can help you ensure that your estate plan does exactly what it should.
How to Protect Assets With a Louisiana Estate Planning Lawyer
Our state has a somewhat unique legal system rooted in the Napoleonic Code, and that means estate planning here requires some special considerations. If you don’t have a plan, the state’s intestate succession laws will dictate how your estate is divided. When that happens, it’s very possible your estate will not be divided in the way that you prefer. Louisiana’s legal system differs from that of most other states, and that’s why it’s so important to work with an estate planning attorney right from the beginning. Here are some of the steps you’ll go through:
Creating a Valid Will
While a proper estate plan is much more than just a will, the will is still the cornerstone. The best type of will is one that is executed before a notary with two witnesses. Use your will to designate heirs, name an executor to manage your state, and appoint a guardian for any minor children, if necessary. Even if you only have a small estate, having a will simplifies the whole process and reduces costs and delays for your family.
Talk Through Creating Trusts
Trusts are a great way to protect your assets. Revocable trusts allow you to manage the assets during your lifetime and then transfer them to beneficiaries upon your death without having to go through probate. Irrevocable trusts offer greater protections from creditors, lawsuits, and taxes but require you to give up control of the assets once they enter the trust. Your lawyer can help you understand what the laws are, what can and cannot be put into a trust, and which types of trusts might be best for your estate.
Create a Power of Attorney (POA)
A POA designates someone to manage your financial and legal affairs if you become incapacitated. You can create a POA and give that person broad authority to act in all matters financial or legal on your behalf, or you can create a limited POA that allows someone to take care of only a specific task, such as selling a piece of property.
Create an Advance Healthcare Directive
This document tells everyone what your medical preferences are and appoints someone as a healthcare proxy to make healthcare decisions for you if you become incapacitated. This does not directly involve your financial assets, but it still protects your estate because it might very well allow you to avoid unnecessary medical expenses while ensuring that your wishes are followed.
There’s more that goes into an estate plan, and for help with yours, contact Walter D. White, A Professional Law Corporation in Shreveport, LA today.