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Are you planning for the future?

It is a part of the human experience to plan for the future. Even as kids, we plan to attend college, start a career, and have a family. And once you become a gainfully employed adult, you start planning for eventualities like retirement and death, as well as potentialities like accident, illness, job loss, and untimely demise. It is for these reasons that we carry auto, home, and life insurance. And it's why we save to buy homes and put money from every paycheck into retirement accounts. But if you're looking to engage in asset protection as a means of ensuring future ease for your loved ones when you are gone, there are several steps you should consider taking.

If something were to happen to me, a Will is all I need, right?

The place where most people start is with a last will and testament. And this is a valued and time-honored form of passing along property and wealth to beneficiaries. However, it is not the only option - you can choose to use it in concert with other forms of protection or even scrap it entirely. The thing you need to understand is that a will may not be as binding as you hope. Not only can a will get tied up in the probate process, preventing recipients from gaining access for an indefinite period of time, but it could also be legally contested, challenging your wishes. If you want to avoid this, it's not a bad idea to consider the prospect of setting up family trusts instead. Or at the very least, you should do so in a supplemental capacity.

Are there better estate planning solutions?

When you create a family home trust, for example, you can ensure that your primary residence goes to your spouse, children, or other intended beneficiaries, giving them one less thing to worry about in your absence. Creating a plan to protect your main asset in this manner will ensure that it is exempt from a possible challenge. More importantly, your family can avoid a lengthy probate process. And of course, you can create other types of family trusts, as well.

What else can you do with a family trust?

Did you know that you can transfer retirement funds and life insurance to a trust? If you're at all worried about certain family members (or other claimants) going after your wealth and assets following your death, creating trusts that list specific beneficiaries can add an extra layer of protection and ensure that your estate is distributed precisely as you wish. And this course of action can also protect you should you find yourself unable to see to your own needs later in life. In truth, it's best to explore all of your options before you make any decisions regarding the administration of your estate. But once you understand the many protections available to you, it's easier to formulate a suitable plan.