Your New Year’s Resolution: Create an Estate Plan with Plakas Mannos

When most people make a New Year’s resolution they often focus on the short term, i.e. going to the gym, learning a new skill, or avoiding vices. Shortly after the New Year’s magic wears off, gym attendance begins to dwindle, vices reemerge, and those New Year’s resolutions are often abandoned altogether.

This year, let’s break that cycle. There is one New Year’s resolution that is easy to cross off the list, will benefit your family for the long-term, and is an absolute must for anyone, but especially those looking to make sure their financial wishes are honored or to avoid future family squabbles.

Plakas Mannos is here to support you in reaching this goal by helping you create an estate plan as your New Year’s resolution! While the foundation of any estate plan often begins with setting up a Will, the possibilities from there are endless. By evaluating your unique financial and family situation, we can advise you on practical steps to take to prevent unexpected but preventable consequences like unnecessary taxes or costs and fees for your family upon your passing. The New Year is a great time to start this process.

What Are Some Basic Estate Planning Tools You Should Consider?

Individuals are often unsure as to the various avenues to consider in crafting an appropriate estate plan. While the estate planning lawyers at Plakas Mannos are here to guide you through this process, a few initial items to consider are as follows:   

• Will – A Will gives you the ability to decide where and to whom your estate (the assets and property you own) will go following your death, as well as who will take care of your minor children and/or pets, if applicable. A Will helps to reduce or eliminate disputes between loved ones over who gets what and can help reduce or eliminate any estate and/or inheritance taxes that may apply;  

• Financial Power of Attorney – A Financial Power of Attorney provides someone you trust with the ability to access and manage your assets should you become incapacitated. In the event of a tragic occurrence that causes you to be unable to make financial decisions for yourself, the execution of a Financial Power of Attorney helps alleviate unneeded stress upon loved ones who will now be able to access you financial accounts and make any payments on your behalf that may be necessary for medical treatment, caring for your minor children or pets, staying up to date on mortgage or vehicle payments, etc.;   

• Healthcare Power of Attorney – A Healthcare Power of Attorney provides someone you trust with the ability to make critical medical decisions on your behalf. This individual will be the one who medical professionals look to for crucial questions concerning your care and medical treatment while you remain incapacitated;   

• Living Will – A Living Will definitively establishes your end-of-life wishes should you become permanently incapacitated with no chance of recovery. In such a circumstance, the Living Will allows you to pre-determine how such a situation will be handled, removing the anxiety of making this decision from your loved ones;   

• A Transfer on Death (“TOD”) Affidavit – A TOD Affidavit can be executed such that your home will transfer to your selected beneficiary or beneficiaries upon your death without requiring them to incur the time and expense of having to involve the Probate Court.

Does My Situation Require More Complex Estate Planning?

Once these basic mechanisms are in place, we can also help guide you through more complex estate planning decisions that you may want to consider in order to provide for the future of your family such as business succession planning, trust administration, philanthropic planning, private equity investing, as well as an array of various other estate planning mechanisms. Such mechanisms are particularly important for individuals with unique considerations including but not limited to, families with special needs children, small business owners, high net-worth individuals, etc.

By way of example, families with special needs children may want to consider setting up a trust to provide for the care of their child throughout the remainder of their life given that unique provisions are often required to ensure that the child is properly provided for. By way of further example, high net-worth individuals may want to consider setting up a trust so as to minimize any estate tax that may apply or to avoid immature decisions by their children should the individual unexpectedly pass. In short, there are a variety of avenues to consider depending on the unique circumstances surrounding a particular individual and their assets.

Create an Estate Plan with Plakas Mannos

Are you in need of an estate planning attorney near Akron or Canton, Ohio? Give our team a call today at 330-455-6112 to see how we can help you create a successful estate plan and finally follow through on your New Year’s resolution! 

Meet the Author

Hunter Miller is an associate attorney focusing on estate planning and probate, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property litigation, and other practice areas.