In this post we chat about why starting a family is the perfect time to get your estate planning in order!
Our main tip – do the estate planning update before the baby arrives! If you are expecting, do it in advance because once baby arrives it is going to be the last thing you’re thinking about.
Transcript
What’s the importance do you think of having an estate plan when you’re thinking of starting a family?
An estate plan is really important once you start having children because there’s more than just you to worry about.
In particular, under your estate plan you get to choose who is going to look after your children if both of you aren’t around.
This is such an important, important decision and we’ve seen time and time again how much stress it can cause for the family because a lot of people have assumptions that they will be getting custody of the children. And it is one of the most important decisions you can make. So putting that in your will is really critical.
And also just choosing who’s going to make the financial decisions and run things for the benefit of the children as well, both if you pass away or if you’re incapacitated and in hospital who’s going to keep everything running.
I know this is really morbid to think about but it’s just about getting peace of mind that if the worst happens you’ve got a plan. You probably won’t ever have to rely on it or not for a really long time, but just make sure that it’s sorted if it happens.
I think the thing that we would say is that when you’re starting a family, it becomes all about the kids and having that estate plan in place just really ensures that both the kids especially then will be looked after as you would want.
I’ve actually got one more tip, which is do the estate planning update before the children arrive. So if you are expecting do it in advance because once bub arrives it is going to be the last thing you’re thinking about.