After losing a spouse it can be difficult to look past your grief. Unfortunately, it may be necessary to make decisions regarding your finances and your personal estate plan. Estate planning is an ongoing process that accounts for changes like marriage, the birth of your children or grandchildren, divorces, job changes, changes in assets, acquiring or selling a business or business interests, and much more. Perhaps you and your spouse had an estate plan and you know exactly how his or her assets will be distributed.
On the other hand, you may not have had an estate plan, which leaves you with certain issues to deal with. Whether your spouse did or did not have a will, you will have to go through California probate—a process that can be lengthy and expensive. Some spouses—particularly those who left the financial decisions to their now-deceased spouse—may discover assets they were unaware of, or there may be fewer assets than they expected.
As the surviving spouse, there may also be some wealth transfer tools available, however, there is a window of time for such actions. Whatever your situation, you can benefit from speaking to a knowledgeable estate planning attorney from Gullotta Law Group. Since estate planning for widows and widowers can be a complex subject, you need the most experienced, knowledgeable estate planning attorney on your side.
How Can Losing a Spouse Affect Current Estate Plans?
Over 1.2 million adults ages 60 and older lost a spouse in 2019. The loss of a spouse can significantly impact current estate plans in ways you may not have even considered. As an example, your spouse was likely named as the primary beneficiary, executor (or both) of your own will. After taking stock of assets, you must revise your will so that beneficiaries are updated, a new executor is named, and assets are redistributed. If you and your spouse had a revocable living trust, this document must also be amended to update the successor trustee, remove your spouse as a beneficiary, and change asset distribution.
Now is the time to check your life insurance policy, retirement account, and other financial assets to remove your spouse’s name as the primary beneficiary, and add new beneficiaries. Whether or not you and your spouse had a financial power of attorney document or a healthcare power of attorney in your estate plan, the addition of these documents is worth discussing with your estate planning attorney. You can name a trusted person to handle your finances and/or your healthcare decisions in the event you become incapacitated with these documents.
Adding a health care directive can include another layer of protection so that your medical wishes would be known if you were to become incapacitated. Finally, you will need to re-title real estate holdings and vehicles to reflect the death of your spouse; you may choose to transfer the properties to your name only or add a co-owner to the titles. Along with all the changes necessary to your estate plan, your estate planning attorney can guide you through tasks like obtaining multiple copies of the death certificate, notifying banks, insurance companies, and government agencies about the death of your spouse, and considering potential tax implications of your current decisions. Attorney Eric Gullotta has significant experience with estate planning for surviving spouses. Consider contacting our office today!
What Are the Estate Planning Needs of a Surviving Spouse?
If your spouse died with no estate plan in place, it can be much more difficult for you to navigate the process. It also gives you an excellent reason to begin working on your own estate plan so your loved ones will not find themselves in the same position someday. You may feel as though you are being bombarded with all the tasks that must be completed. If all your financial information is organized and up-to-date, this is a much simpler process. If it all seems too overwhelming, start simple.
Have a will prepared by an estate planning professional and make sure you have up-to-date information on your own life insurance and retirement funds. From this point, you can add to your estate plan as you feel more able to do so. If you have young children you can name a guardian for them in your will. Death or incapacitation, when there is no level of estate plan, is a disservice to your loved ones. Added to their grief, they also have to deal with the courts only to find out that someone else is interpreting what will happen to your assets.
What Updates Are Necessary for Estate Planning for Surviving Spouses?
Estate planning for widows and widowers is different for each individual. The process will differ according to the level of assets, whether there are minor children involved, age, and many more factors, such as whether you and your spouse had an estate plan at the time of his or her death. If there was no estate plan, then you are essentially starting from scratch. A knowledgeable estate planning attorney can not only help you navigate all the unexpected issues that arise following your spouse’s death but can also help you begin planning for the future with your own estate planning documents.
While everyone’s estate planning needs are different, if you had prior estate planning documents your first task will be to replace your deceased spouse’s name on the documents with another person of your choice. That might be an adult child, a parent, or a close friend. You need to make sure that all your current documents no longer list your spouse as beneficiary, successor trustee, or executor. In addition to planning for your own death, you need to include a plan for a potential incapacitation so there will be a person who can make decisions on your behalf—as you would have yourself. An advance health care directive lets you make your wishes known, including whether you want heroic measures to save your life regardless of quality of life, whether you would want to be put on a feeding or breathing tube, and other equally important decisions.
If you are older or have had any level of medical issues, you and your spouse may have had HIPAA releases which allowed you to access one another’s medical records. You may want to choose a person you would trust to be able to speak to your doctors and inquire about your medical records. For those who had an estate plan in place, now is the time for you—as a surviving spouse—to take a second look at that plan and see if it still fits your life and your wishes. After carefully reviewing all beneficiary designations and ensuring all titles reflect the loss of your spouse, you and your estate planning attorney can look forward and decide what your estate plan should look like.
How the Gullotta Law Group Can Help You With Estate Planning for Widows and Widowers
Everyone’s needs are different when estate planning for widows and widowers. It is essential that you trust your estate planning attorney to guide you in the best direction and to ensure your wishes are clearly understood. There are many choices of estate planning attorneys, yet at Gullotta Law Group we believe strongly that once you have spoken to attorney Eric Gullotta your choice will be clear.
Eric answers your questions and explains issues in an easy-to-understand manner. We implement flat fee pricing so you never have to worry about failing to get the answers you need because you are worried about hourly billing. If you want an estate plan that is easy and simple and you want an estate planning attorney you trust and feel comfortable with, contact Gullotta Law Group today.