Oh No, The Whole Family is Traveling Together

The joy of family vacation can sometimes be overshadowed by a worry that your estate plan may not work the way you want it to if the unexpected and remote possibility of a catastrophe happens.  Should you worry?  Vacations, especially when the whole family is traveling together, can be a trigger for checking to see if your estate plan is up to date.  Checking to see that you have the proper “helpers” (successor trustee, personal representative, power of attorney agent, health care agent, etc.) lined up to step in if something happens is important.  When thinking about your helpers, if you think it might be likely for you all to be traveling together at some point, consider adding in another relative or friend whom you trust who could be named as a successor helper in the event your other helpers are unavailable or unable to serve.

In addition to reviewing whether your helpers are proper, also review your estate plan to see if your remote beneficiaries are correct – Remote beneficiaries are the people or entities who would receive your property if your named beneficiaries (e.g. spouse, children, grandchildren, etc.) in your Trust or Will are no longer living.  The normal default language in estate planning documents for the remote beneficiary is your “family tree” (e.g. the beneficiary will be whoever is living at a particular generation level:  parents, then siblings, then nieces/nephews, etc.).  Check to see if the remote beneficiaries are the way you want them to be – Do you want to name a friend or charity in lieu of or in case your family tree is insufficient?

Check before you go…if you want any changes, make them.  Just please give your estate planning attorney a bit of lead time to make adjustments – the day before your vacation doesn’t exactly help.  Once the changes are made, or you have confirmed that your estate plan is in order, you can head out on vacation without being worried and can enjoy that well-deserved break.

For more information, Tiffany can be contacted at tiffany@OConnellLawGroup.com or (508) 202-1818.  Additional information is also available via the O’Connell Law LLC website:  www.OConnellLawGroup.com .