Cumming Georgia Legal Blog

If you would like to leave a gift for a good cause in your estate, it can be difficult to know where to start. Certain methods of giving have tax benefits and some might require complicated steps for an estate executor. However, with careful planning you can make your gift a reality.

There is a common misperception among many that estate planning is a sophisticated process that wealthy people use to make sure their surviving spouse, children, and future generations will be taken care of. And while it is certainly true that the larger and more complex an estate is, the greater potential benefit can be derived from careful and prudent planning, it is also true that every Georgia resident should explore the various estate planning tools to understand how they can work for the individual's specific needs.

The first issue to consider is what happens if a person does nothing concerning estate planning and dies intestate. Legal experts can explain that each state has laws that provide for a distribution of the assets of a person who dies without a will or trust. These laws do not consider what the deceased may have wanted. For example, if a person with no spouse or children were to die intestate, his or her estate would go to some distant relative rather than the close friend or charity the deceased may have preferred.

Georgia residents can likely benefit from sitting down with their families and discussing various estate plan topics. One of those topics may be related to how a parent intends to transfer his or her assets. However, broaching this topic may be difficult as many older Americans grew up in a time when discussing money was taboo. In fact, only 21 percent of parents polled by Ameriprise said that their children know how much they will receive.

In many cases, adult children don't feel like it is proper to discuss money with their parents. However, not having an estate planning conversation could result in family infighting or conflict between siblings. Generally speaking, this tends to occur after a parent has passed on. The chances of family conflict could increase if a person has children from multiple marriages or a family is otherwise blended to some degree.

Many baby boomers in Georgia have diligently worked hard to build their portfolios and amass a sizeable nest egg. Understandably, many of these same individuals have a desire to manage their family legacies. One study related to this topic found that nearly 70 percent of adults over 50 want to use their accumulated assets to invest in their children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, even the most well-organized baby boomers can't control the actions their millennial beneficiaries take or don't take.

Many Gen Xers and millennials simply don't have estate planning high on their list of priorities. Some boomers' children may be overwhelmed with debt themselves, or they might purposely resist making the effort to plan ahead because they feel like they are being pressured to do so. One possible solution is for future-minded boomers to give the gift of estate planning to their kids or grandkids. Some parents prefer to approach the subject when their children have kids of their own while others opt to use family events like the death of a loved one to bring up the subject.