Estate planning might be the last thing on your mind when you are new parents. While this is totally understandable, there are reasons that you should have your estate details sorted out even if your child is very small. The sad truth about life is that things can be very uncertain and you don’t want to leave a spouse, your family, or your child without the right tools to be able to access your assets. This is particularly true in Pennsylvania where inheritance tax is assessed on estates that do not have trusts in place.
Why Does Estate Planning Matter For Parents With Young Children?
As stated above, you can’t predict what challenges might impact your life. While no one wants to think about passing away at a young age, there are many reasons that people sadly do pass away. This can leave a spouse with the responsibility to take care of assets, the child, and more without help. If the accident that claims your life takes the life of your spouse as well, your child might end up becoming part of the foster care system in absence of a stated legal guardian. Many people do not realize that guardianship needs to be legally established or children will end up being the responsibility of the state of Pennsylvania.
Providing stability for your child is as easy as having a will and a trust in place to care for their needs and to make sure that the right people have access to your accounts and assets when you pass away. This information and arrangement can be modified later on as you age, but you should always have some form of legal arrangement in place for your estate when you have children. In the best-case scenario, you will need to modify this information at a later date, and in the worst-case scenario, your child will not be at the mercy of the state if you should pass away.
How to Arrange Your Estate
There are various ways to create an estate in the state of Pennsylvania. Your best bet is almost always a trust since this will protect your assets from being taxed when you pass away. This is also a good way to be sure that the right people have access to your assets and the right relatives have custody of your child if you should pass away. A pour-over will can help to ensure that nothing of yours will be left out of the estate, even if items were not called out in the trust at the time it was created.
There are various ways that you can set up this kind of arrangement, and you can determine with your spouse or with your family what the best plan for your child should be if you pass away. This is something that a skilled estate lawyer can help you with as well. Being sure that your estate is arranged correctly is critical in the state of Pennsylvania to avoid steep inheritance tax and other issues that might lead to your possessions and investments becoming the state’s.
While it can be difficult to face the thought of your own mortality, your child will only benefit from your efforts in this process and you will have peace of mind about their well-being if you should pass away. This is one of the things that can make the biggest difference if you should pass away while your child is young, and trust and wills are essential later in life as well to be sure that your family can access your estate without it being impacted by intestacy laws. Estate planning is not something that anyone can live without and you will want to be sure that you keep this at the top of your list of things to do if you have found out that you are going to be a parent soon.
At Antanavage Farbiarz, our skilled team takes pride in offering expert estate planning services of various kinds for your needs. Our team of skilled lawyers can help with the estate planning process and work with you on different kinds of estate and trust plans. We also offer guidance on making donations through wills, trusts, gifts, and other methods. If you are ready to discuss your will and estate planning concerns, call us at (610) 562-2000 or use our contact form to schedule an appointment.