Much too often I speak to people and they tell me that estate planning is something for the wealthy.  After much contemplation, introspection and coffee, I came to a conclusion that now seems so obvious that I can’t believe I missed it.  People believe that estate planning is a concern for only the wealthy, because only the wealthy have estates.  Well that’s just plain silly.  An “estate plan” is nothing more than another term for “stuff plan.”  So, if we all started to call it stuff planning we’d all know it was for all of us!  We all have stuff, some good stuff and some bad stuff.  My stuff is important to me because it’s mine.  Your stuff might be better than mine because I don’t have it, but that’s a whole other posting.

In short, estate/stuff planning is simply a set of instructions that you are writing regarding your stuff and what you want to do with your stuff.  Normally, you want your stuff going to your family, sometimes friends and sometimes charities.  But, don’t you want to be the one that decides what happens to your stuff?  That’s an estate plan — your plan for what happens to your stuff.

Now there are a number of requirements that must be met in order to have a valid estate plan.  Your estate plan has to be written down, you must sign it and people have to see you sign it.  That’s the simple part.  Now the plans get more complex depending on how much stuff you have, how long you want to control your stuff (even after you’re gone) and where you want your stuff to go in the end.  Case in point, I love my son, but I think he should wait a few years before he gets my car — or at least until he can walk and is out of diapers.  So in the mean time, I’d need someone to look after my stuff for my son.  See how it gets a bit more complicated?

In order to make your estate plan, you’ll need to put down your wishes into a document called a will or a trust.  To make sure it actually does what you want, you’ll need to have an experienced attorney write up your plan.

Here’s something fun.  The first question you ask the lawyer who’s about to write your will or trust should be “How much of your practice is estate planning?”  If they tell you anything less than 100%, turn around and walk out of their office.  Lots of attorneys claim that they can take care of your estate plan, but if it’s my stuff, I want the guy who works on taking care of stuff all the time.

Finally, if you don’t come up with a plan regarding your stuff, don’t worry.  There’s a plan out there for all your stuff.  It’s the government’s plan and they hope you like it.  Then again, it doesn’t matter if you like it.  This plan will happen if you don’t make one of your own.  The problem with the government’s plan is that someone might be left out of the plan that you would have made and that person now misses out on getting some of your stuff.  Here are some examples:

Example 1: If more than one of your relatives want the same part of your stuff, that can get messy and expensive…and a lot of your stuff will be used to pay the courts and attorneys to sort it all out.  (Fun for the lawyer, but that’s about it).

Example 2: If you’re not married and you want your significant other to get some of your stuff when you die, you’d better get your plan in place, or it just won’t happen.  Under some states’ plans, your stuff will go to your blood relatives.  Period.

Example 3: If you’re married and you’ve got kids, don’t be too sure that your spouse is going to get all your stuff.  Your kids will probably get their share of your assets, which means your spouse may not get enough of your stuff to live on.

In short, if you have stuff and it matters to you, be responsible enough to decide what you want to do with your stuff.

One last thought: if your stuff includes kids, you’ve really got to have a plan in place.  If you don’t, do you really think that the government is going to make the same decisions regarding your kids that you would have if you were still making the decisions?