You know that you will need an estate plan eventually. Like most Americans, though, you haven’t made that plan yet. It’s something you want to do in the future.
Your reasoning is simple: You’re in your 30s, you have only been married for a few years, your child is still a toddler, and you just don’t know why you’d bother with estate planning yet. It’s something you’ll do when you’re a grandparent and you have adult children who will get your assets. You’re too young to do it now.
But are you? There are actually some great reasons to do estate planning at your age.
Young children need a more complex plan
For one thing, having a toddler doesn’t mean you should wait until they’re an adult to create a plan. They actually need a more complex plan now, because of their age. You must pick a guardian to raise them if you can’t, you need to put assets into a trust to hold those assets until your heir is older, and much else. If you are a parent, you can use an estate plan, even with a young child.
You can’t actually predict when the plan will be needed
Many people operate under the assumption that they have until their mid 70s, since life expectancy in the United States is around 78 years old. But that’s just the expectancy, and it takes many things into account. For every person who lives until their 90s, you have someone else who passes away early to balance out the statistics. You may be relatively safe from many diseases and disorders at your age, but there are still car accidents and other such events that take place every day. You need a plan just in case, even though you hopefully won’t use it for decades.
How can you create the right plan?
If you now see how important estate planning really is at your age and for your family, take the time to carefully consider all of the steps you will need to take.