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Oakland, CA | East Bay; Using Estate Planning Basics in a Financial Plan

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Hi, I’m Erik Wolfers. I’m the founder and managing member of First & Main Financial. We’ve been helping people with personal finances since 2001. Today I want to talk a little bit about estate planning.

While we are not estate attorneys, we understand it’s good to get the help from an estate attorney to do a comprehensive estate plan—especially if you own a home or have kids. We generally try to educate our clients about the basics of estate planning and make sure they’ve considered whether they have a need or not.

People often assume that a will is sufficient to clear or settle their estate. In the state of California, if you own a home and you’ve designated the ownership of your home to go to someone else through a will, it will still go to the probate process. Probate is expensive. Generally, to have an attorney represent you could be thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the size of your estate—and it’s a lengthy process. If you create a living trust, which is revocable and can also be amended, the trust acts as a legal entity and provides instructions that allows your estate to avoid the probate process.

One other simple estate planning item that can be taken care of is just making sure that you have your beneficiaries designated correctly on retirement accounts. However, if you have a living trust, you can have non-retirement accounts named in your trust—in that way if something happens to you or you and your partner, then everything should happen as designated inside of your trust.

Most people do want to avoid the probate process. Some other basics of estate planning are items such as durable power of attorney. If you have a durable power of attorney for health care, then it’s very clear in writing who it is that would make decisions on your behalf should you become unconscious or in a coma state. There’s also a durable power of attorney for property. If something happens to you, then it’s in writing as to who will take care of your property and make decisions on your behalf, and if there’s money that needs to be distributed or bills paid, then someone else can take care of those things for you.

There are online resources and template documents that people sometimes use. Estate attorneys will tell you stories of when self-estate planning goes bad and even estate planning that’s not totally meticulous goes bad. It’s definitely good to make sure you have everything in writing and everything organized as you wanted to—and if you want to avoid the probate process, a living trust is a good way to go.

We’re taking new clients all the time. If you have questions about estate planning or need a referral to a quality estate attorney, please let us know.

If you are looking for some financial guidance; whether for a one time financial plan or continuing advice on your investments, we invite you to meet with a First & Main Financial planner for a free consultation. We would be more than happy to sit down with you, assess your situation and review our services to help navigate your financial future.

“Best Financial Advisor in Piedmont, CA”

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East Bay Area: Piedmont, , , , , CA

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“Best Financial Advisor in Piedmont, CA”

Top Rated Local Financial Advisor / Planner

East Bay Area: Piedmont, , , , , CA

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Oakland, CA | East Bay; Using Estate Planning Basics in a Financial Plan