Everyone wants to make a difference in their own little corner of the world. You may have loved ones whose lives you want to make better, charitable causes you care about, and family members who are counting on you. Your ability to provide for and protect your loved ones and causes that matter does not have to end with your death. In fact, if you make the right legacy plan, you can ensure that you have control over the legacy that you leave.
German Law can help. Our experienced legacy planning lawyers have worked with many individuals and families in Minnesota and North Dakota to put the right legal tools to work in a comprehensive legacy plan. We provide personalized help in deciding what you want your legacy to be and using the tools to help make that happen, so give us a call to get started on the legacy planning process and to get answers to questions you have about legacy planning including:
- Do I need a legacy plan?
- What should be part of my legacy plan?
- How can a legacy planning lawyer help me in North Dakota or Minnesota?
Do You Need a Legacy Plan?
Everyone needs to have a legacy plan in place. If you do not have a legacy plan, default rules will determine what should happen to you at the end of your life and what should happen to your life savings after you pass away.
You need a legacy plan to make sure that intestacy laws don’t determine who inherits your wealth. Not only could intestacy law result in a distribution of your wealth that differs from what you would have preferred, but not the process of determining who inherits could also be much more difficult.
When you make a comprehensive estate plan, you can facilitate the transfer of your assets in an orderly, appropriate way. If you have no plans in place, this could lead to family fighting – which increases the costs of the probate process, reduces the value of an inheritance, and can lead to resentments that break up family bonds.
You should also make a legacy plan as early as you can during your life because knowing what you want to achieve during your lifetime can help you to set goals and make smart choices about how you should protect your assets. German Law helps people of all ages to think about what they want their future to hold and to consider the ways in which they can build a strong foundation for their own success and the success of their loved ones.
What Should be Part of Your Legacy Plan?
Your legacy planning should be personalized to your goals. German Law will work with you to determine how you can use your assets to make a difference in the lives of your loved ones or in causes you care about. Our legal team will help you to identify the different tools you can use to make achieving your goals easier and we can guide you through the process of creating the legal documents you need to protect your legacy.
Some of the different components which could be a part of your legacy plan include:
- A last will and testament which determines who inherits.
- A business succession plan to transfer a company seamlessly to new owners.
- Trusts, to provide more control over inheritances and to provide protection for assets.
- Powers of attorney so your assets are protected from mismanagement in case of incapacity.
- Plans for charitable giving using a charitable remainder trust or a charitable foundation.
These are just a few of the many different tools that you could create as a part of your legacy plan. Your plan should be focused on amassing wealth that can become your legacy, protecting the assets that you have worked hard to acquire, and facilitating the timely and effective transfer of those assets to the people you love and causes you care about.
How can a Legacy Planning Lawyer Help You in Minnesota or North Dakota
At German Law, our legal team is made up of experienced estate planning lawyers who can help you to set goals for your legacy and make those goals a reality. No matter what your income level is or what your hopes are for how you will be remembered after you are gone, we can help you to achieve what you are hoping for through the effective use of legal tools. To find out more about the ways in which we help clients in Minnesota and North Dakota to build strong legacies, give us a call today.
