Procrastination is Not a Planning Tool

We did two estate planning seminars this week to a lovely group of audience. As I emphasized during the presentations, the number one reason that people die without protecting their assets or their heirs is not that they lack the money to create an estate plan, and it’s not that they don’t know that they need one, or how to create one—It’s procrastination. Most people who die without an estate plan in place do so because they dawdled.

For most of us it’s all too easy to put off thoughts of sickness or death, and all planning for the unlikely—but inevitable—event get pushed to the wayside. Writer M. P. Dunleavey reminds us in the article Last Things Can’t Wait Till Last that procrastination is not a planning tool and that in actuality, once you buckle down and start, protecting your heirs is not such a difficult process after all; especially if you have the right person helping you.

At our office we agree with Dunleavey’s article to the extent that we want to ensure that you have everything you need to best protect your assets and your heirs without making it unnecessarily complicated. Life insurance, conservatorship, guardianship, Medi-Cal, wills and trusts: taken piece by piece they can overwhelm even the staunchest of individuals; but our office can help you sort through each of these issues together, and be confident in your future security and the security of your heirs.

In a world with complicated laws, and in which we often have very complicated lives, it’s nice to know that your estate planner is working to make your life simpler.