As California residents age and enter retirement age, their needs for estate planning often change. When you retire from your job, it’s an excellent time to establish your estate plan if you don’t have one or review it to ensure it meets your current wishes. Consider the following elements.
Passing on assets and lowering taxes
Determining who will get your assets after your passing and how to lower taxes now that you are in the retirement stage of living are the two most pressing issues of estate planning when people have stopped working a full-time job.
You should have a will, even if it is basic, to indicate who gets your possessions. Without one, your estate might go through a long, drawn-out probate process, which could be frustrating for your heirs. Review retirement and bank accounts to ensure that beneficiaries are correct. Make a listing of all pertinent financial accounts and put them in a comprehensive document for your executor and loved ones to make the process easier for them.
Some higher-wealth individuals may need to place assets into one or more trusts to lower taxes for their beneficiaries. On a similar note, converting traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs is another option that can benefit you and your heirs at tax time.
Estate planning is easier than you think
Sometimes, people believe that estate planning is always a complicated process. It doesn’t have to be. However, the life changes that retirement brings often necessitate a creation or an examination of what you have, including possible additional estate documents.
Even if you are in good health now, consider adding powers of attorney for financial and health care decisions. Retirement brings about many changes. Make sure that those changes ultimately end up positively and are not fraught with uncertainty.