As a young couple, it’s easy to overlook the benefits of estate planning. After all, you might not assume that you need it, and without any minor children to take care of you may assume that you’re better off ignoring this process until it becomes necessary.
However, this can be a huge mistake and you could find yourself dealing with the consequences when your spouse suddenly passes away or if you become incapacitated and are no longer able to take care of these things by yourself. In these circumstances, you need to be prepared for using various different estate planning strategies and tools to protect your interests.
One way of doing this is by purchasing a life insurance policy to supplement your own assets. Life insurance is a great planning tool for younger families because many younger families don’t have a lot of assets that they’d worry about in the traditional estate planning process. They may also carry a large mortgage or high student loan debt. All too often, younger couples wait until the birth of their first child to decide to get life insurance so that the surviving parent would have sufficient funds to raise the children if one passed away.
Since people are waiting longer to get married, it’s also possible that your finances are tied up with a romantic partner already. This person might depend on you and vice versa for covering things like basic bills and home expenses. If something happened to either one of you, would the other be able to keep up with those payments?
This can also lead you to think about how you would provide more immediate and non-probate assets to your loved ones in the event that something happens to you.
Along with life insurance, make sure you have discussed cornerstone documents for your Michigan estate planning strategy with a lawyer.