A comprehensive estate plan provides a wide range of benefits to you and your loved ones. Keeping your assets in your own name ensures that they’re fully protected during and after your lifetime.
Working with an estate planning attorney helps you choose the right estate plan for your needs and establish long-term goals that support the wellbeing of your entire family.
The following helps you understand how your estate plan secures ownership of your assets in order to maximize their value and the benefits they provide to beneficiaries.
Why You Need to Keep Your Assets and Accounts in Your Own Name
Keeping assets in your own name protects them from the threat of creditors, divorce, and other common issues. It keeps your assets organized and easy to access when you need them.
The right estate plan prevents creditors from claiming assets. But any debts you share with a spouse may put your assets at risk.
Your estate planning attorney will help you determine whether or not your assets are fully protected from creditors.
Divorce puts personal and professional assets at risk of equitable division. This is the process by which assets are valuated and divided between both parties.
The assets that were acquired by you before the marriage and kept separate from marital property are protected from division by the courts.
It also makes the divorce process easier by reducing the complexities required when assets are in the names of you and your spouse.
Simple Steps to Protecting Assets in Your Own Name
There are steps you can take to ensure that your assets remain in your name and protected from common financial and estate planning risks.
If you or your spouse own a business, you’ll need to keep assets such as your home or automobiles in your name instead of the business.
Consulting with an estate planning attorney helps you determine the best way to manage your assets. Keep financial statements and other documentation organized.
This makes it easy to create a stable estate plan and financial structure. Having a retirement plan in your name gives you the income you need in your later years without the need to benefit from the assets of your spouse.
Joint ownership of a business presents its own estate planning challenges. You need to understand and document your legal rights of ownership.
Creating the Estate Plan You Need
Drafting a will is the first step to creating an estate plan that keeps your assets in your own name. Your lets you name another individual to manage your personal and business assets after you die.
Your estate planning attorney can help you create a living trust, in which you can place your assets for full protection.
A trust keeps your property from having to go through the probate process while keeping financial information private.
Power of attorney gives someone else the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf. This is especially important in cases where an individual becomes incapacitated and unable to manage their own affairs.
Your estate plan should be updated over time to reflect changes in your personal and business assets. Divorce, the sale of a business, and other circumstances impact the assets that are in your name.
Working with the right legal professional lets you address all of the estate planning issues you need to consider to protect your assets.
Keeping your assets in your own name is a critical part of the process. Through proper estate planning, you secure your assets and maximize their value so that they provide lasting benefits to your loved ones.
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