Originally Posted 10/29/2021

Before I had a son I didn’t put much importance on the idea of estate planning. Of course, what did I have to leave behind? I think many young people think like this. Currently, the age range of Millennials is between 25 and 40. At the higher end of that age bracket, I am going to assume, the understanding that planning for what will happen with the care of your children, pets, home, car, bank accounts, and even your debt is a priority and incredibly important. From speaking with younger millennials it's clear that the idea of estate planning just isn’t in their purview.

As an associate of LegalShield, a monthly service for anyone and every one to maintain legal services, I am fully aware of the importance of establishing an estate plan and how very expensive it can seem. However, that's not the case anymore. I will tell you more later in this blog. 

I want to share with you the benefit of setting up your will and estate documents early. Legalshield has this awesome video and pdf about life stages. I link those below, but I wanted an opportunity to summarize them for you here.

Ok, let's get into it. No one wants to talk about what to do in the event they pass away. We especially don’t want to talk about it when we just graduated high school or college. We don’t want to dampen the mood of being newlyweds or of the glow and exhaustion of having a newborn baby. We don’t want to rain on the parade that is buying our first home. I get it, but we are going to talk about it because someday, most likely many many many years from now, we all will pass. When that happens if you don’t have a will and estate plan - everything goes into probate and the custody of children becomes an issue. 

I don’t know about you, but I want to maintain control of my life and who my child will be raised by, if not by me, well after I am dead. 

So let's get out of this morbidity for a moment and let me outline the different life stages that you are encountering, have encountered, or will encounter- where planning for the future is vital.

Legal Stages of your life:

Marriage: Will and Legal Services

Wedding: As far as Legalshield as a service, it can be a monumental help when it comes to planning your wedding. How many contracts are you signing for the making of this magical day? Well, let's see. The wedding venue, reception venue, caterer, DJ, officiant, the church, the honeymoon…… contracts. What if you didn’t do what everyone does- trust the vendors wholeheartedly? What if you had a lawyer review those contracts? Making sure you aren’t signing away your firstborn. Making sure you can get refunds if services are not rendered as promised? In fact, if you want a refund because a vendor defaulted on the contract - you'd need a lawyer for that too. 

Will: You now have another person who is dependent on you - your new spouse. A will is a simple document that outlines who has the right to your finances, your medical care, your property, etc. When you and your spouse create a will, if something happens - you won’t need to think about it - it will already be decided. 

Financial Decisions: Legal Services

There are a good number of financial decisions you and your spouse will be making in  

 the coming months and years. Here are a few to consider:

Renting a Home

Buying a Car

Buying a Home

Family Additions: Yea BABIES!!!!- Will and Estate Planning

God forbid if something happens to you and your spouse- who do you want to raise your children? This is not something to take lightly and not something we want a court to decide. Only you know what's best for your children- so take the right steps to protect their future. You can do this in your will and creating an estate plan will ensure that the financial support your children will need is taken care of. This is important stuff.

There is more. End of life or a medical situation that makes you unable to care for yourself. So many things that can happen in your future. We don’t want to think about it all the time, but it's incredibly important to take care of ourselves before something happens - and there's no reason to wait. 

With so much more information available, this blog could have been a short book. Instead, I will share the link to the LegalShield website. Take a look and if you have any questions - reach out to me, I'd love to help in any way I can.

Of course- many of those documents need to be notarized- and I would love to help you with that as well.

Jennifer Cooper- JKC Mobile Notary