Estate Planning

What is the Financial Advisor Role in Estate Planning

Although a major aspect of the estate planning process involves properly addressing exactly who your wealth will transfer to and to what extent, it also addresses other important questions such as who is going to be responsible for your long-term care and health on your behalf. While hiring an attorney is helpful for several of the more specific legal aspects involved in estate planning, an advisor helps you address your goals and the concerns you have in mind. The assistance of an advisor is also important for ensuring that your estate plan is able to adjust and withstand any sudden changes in your life. When we implement any financial plan for our clients, we are always on call. With whatever life throws at you, we’re with you every step of the way to make sure that your financial plan is going to withstand any unexpected surprises.

Unlike most advisors, we take a holistic approach to building a financial plan for our clients. In other words, we focus first and foremost on your goals and objectives. By taking a holistic approach to developing a personalized, comprehensive financial plan, we’re able to develop a plan that focuses on creating a lasting legacy for yourself and your family. At the end of the day, estate planning is a conversation around the values you’ve developed in your life that you want your family to embrace when you’re gone. Many of our first meetings are simply to better understand the person sitting across from us. We understand that everyone has different concerns and values so a financial plan should be created with this in mind. Only by first understanding your goals and concerns do we look at the impact of things such as taxes and the various investments on your financial roadmap.

A financial advisor’s role in estate planning can also simply be to provide a better understanding of the strategies that your attorney recommends for your estate plan. Instead of carrying the weight of understanding countless legal documents on your own, an advisor can help by explaining and clarifying the why behind the different recommendations that your attorney has advised you on. After all, developing an estate plan is typically a team effort and by having a financial advisor in your back pocket you’re able to not only have a better understanding of your estate plan, but you’re also able to ensure that all of your goals and concerns are going to be addressed alongside it. No one wants to leave their loved ones with a haphazardly made estate plan. Working with both an attorney and advisor ensures that no stone is left unturned and that the legacy you leave for your loved ones is built to last.

Why Having an Estate Plan is Important

Your estate encompasses everything from your house to your financial investments and personal possessions. If you don’t have a plan in place for your estate, it often lies with the state to provide you with one. Probate is a court-supervised process whereby the state is tasked with distributing a deceased person’s estate according to the rules of the deceased person’s state of residence. While there are many reasons why a person’s estate may need to undergo probate, intestacy is ordinarily the way to get there. Intestacy applies when the deceased persons did not have a will in place or a binding alternative. It refers to the body that is entitled to the property under the rules of inheritances. In other words, if you do not have a strict will in place, your beneficiaries may be obligated to go under the process of probate, which often comes along with substantial fees and a prolonged period of wait time. For example, on average, once a case has been opened, the probate process is typically a six to nine-month ordeal and in some cases, the probate process can take even longer.

If you’re currently supporting any family members and are concerned for their wellbeing when you pass, it would be in your best interest to prepare an estate plan that addresses the need to avoid the probate process. While the solution will rely on your unique financial situation and family, by developing a trust or establishing payable on death accounts you can typically avoid probate altogether. Taking the appropriate estate planning steps can help ease the transition of assets to your beneficiaries and minimize what could have been both costly and timely affair for your loved ones.

Florida Financial Advisors are trained to help you build a comprehensive plan that will give you greater control, privacy, and security over your legacy.

Note: FFA does not provide legal or tax advice.