Our Comprehensive Estate Planning Guide

You work hard to provide for your family and build a secure future. Chances are you have life insurance, a retirement savings account, and college savings accounts for your kids. But if you don’t have an estate plan, you’re putting your family’s future at potential risk. In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about estate planning so you can take the first step toward creating greater security and peace of mind for yourself and your loved ones. If you have questions along the way, our experienced Trust and Investments Team is here to help!

What is an estate plan? 

Like any good plan, an estate plan contains specific instructions for dealing with certain eventualities such as:

• Who will become your children’s legal guardians if they are orphaned before they turn 18?
• How do you want your property to be distributed after your death?
• What kind of medical treatments do you want or not want in the event of a serious illness that leaves you unable to give consent or make decisions for yourself?
• If you own a business, how do you want to pass it on to a family member or prepare to sell it?
• ...and more!

By answering these questions in advance with an estate plan, you remove that burden from your loved ones. Estate plans also have the benefit of avoiding probate, an expensive and lengthy court proceeding to determine how to distribute your assets in the absence of clear instruction from you. 

What documents are included in an estate plan?

So, how do your answers and instructions get recorded and bestowed with the authority of the law? Through estate planning documents:

• Revocable living trust: This can be changed over time to reflect changes in your wishes or family circumstances. Helps you avoid probate, maintain privacy, and minimize taxes.
• Last will & testament: A legal documentation of your wishes for how your property should be distributed after your death. 
• Durable power of attorney (POA): Authorizes a designated person to handle matters such as finances or health care decisions in the event that you become incapacitated.
• Advance health care directive: Articulates your wishes for the kind of care you want and don’t want when you can’t make decisions for yourself. 

Meeting with our Trust and Investment Team

To get the ball rolling with your estate plan, call our Trust and Investment Services team at 217-787-3100 or e-mail Trust@townandcountrybank.com to set up an initial meeting. Here’s what to expect:

• We will discuss your goals and objectives. It may help to think through some of these in advance, such as who you would want to care for your children, for example.
• We can answer any questions you may have, such as “Should I get more life insurance?” or “Do I need a separate trust with assets for the care of minor children?”

You’ll leave your first consultation with homework—we will ask you to think through and provide the information we need to draft your estate plan. This generally includes a list of your assets (physical property, checking and savings accounts, retirement accounts), life insurance policies for you and/or your spouse, as well as a list of your beneficiaries, guardians for any children, and back-up executors and POAs. Usually, you would name your spouse as your executor and POA, but you can include back-ups in case your spouse predeceases you. 

Designating Beneficiaries

If you already have a will, you may think that’s enough to control who gets your assets when you die. However, some assets can only be passed on through a beneficiary designation. Examples include:

• Life insurance
• Annuities
• Retirement accounts including 401(k)s and 403(b)s, IRAs, etc.
• Other financial accounts such as checking, savings, and non-retirement investment accounts.

Failing to name beneficiaries or update beneficiaries as needed can have unpleasant and expensive consequences. If you have no beneficiary, the proceeds of your account may go to probate and your family will have to hire a lawyer and go to court to claim them. If you don’t update beneficiaries, your account may go to the wrong person. For example, if you get married and don’t update your spouse as the beneficiary, your money will go to the existing beneficiary and your spouse will have to depend on them to “do the right thing” and give the money away. 

If you’re not sure which beneficiaries to choose for which account, we can help you think through these important decisions. 

Setting Goals for Estate Planning

Estate planning goals are personal and vary depending on your family and financial circumstances. Here are some of the most common goals to get you thinking:

• Provide for loved ones. This is always an important goal of financial and estate planning, but there is a special urgency to thinking through how your loved ones would be provided for if you pass away during your working years instead of after retirement.
• Minimize taxes. Estate planning can help you reduce state and federal taxes on your estate.
• Protect assets getting passed to surviving spouses and heirs. This is especially important in divorced and blended families.
• Maintain privacy. An estate plan protects your assets from becoming public knowledge, which gives you privacy and helps protect surviving spouses from being targeted for fraud.
• Prepare for incapacity. Getting your assets organized, creating a living will, and naming a healthcare Power of Attorney all help set you up for the best possible situation should incapacity occur.

Creating a Last Will and Testament

No estate plan is complete without a will, which guides others after your death and leaves legally binding instructions for:

• Who gets which asset or piece of property
• Who becomes the personal guardian for any minor children and trustee of assets left to them
• Who is the executor to carry out your will

Once your estate planning documents, including a Last Will and Testament, have been drafted, you will have a chance to double check them and make any necessary changes before signing before a notary. 

Contact our Trust and Investment team today!

At Town and Country Bank and Peoples Prosperity Bank, our professional team is well-versed in all aspects of estate planning and administration. We are positioned to effectively collect all estate assets, carefully invest them during probate, and complete the distribution process in a timely manner. Contact us today to learn more about estate planning, get answers to your questions, and discuss your needs and goals.