Young, single people are the least likely demographic to have an estate plan.

Estate planning is primarily thought of as a means to distribute personal and real property upon death. Often, young people haven’t yet acquired a great deal of property, and they figure anything they do have will go to their living parents or siblings. Or, they may be holding off on planning their estate because of the eventual hope of getting married and expanding their family.

But estate planning deals with a lot more than just distribution of assets, and the most responsible thing to do is to prepare for the unexpected circumstances that can occur while working towards the life you want.

A strong estate plan also includes a durable power of attorney and an advance directive for health care. These documents are important because they dictate who will make decisions for you in the event you are incapacitated.

If you end up in the hospital because of a sudden illness or traumatic accident, bills will still come due, taxes must be filed, and financial decisions must be made. A durable power of attorney gives decision-making power to a trusted friend or family member during your incapacitation.

And, while you’re in the hospital, an advance directive for health care gives your designated agent the power to carry out your personal wishes for medical and life-saving treatment and end-of-life care.

In that same vein, singles should consider purchasing a disability insurance plan because they don’t have the second income of a spouse to fall back on in the event of an accident or disability.

Nothing incapacitates a person like a car accident or sudden illness – and no age group is immune to either – but responsible estate planning can prepare your life for your worst-case scenarios.

James D. Perry

Late-in-life second marriages are becoming commonplace in American society, and with it, anxiety has been rising among stepchildren. Estate planning lawyers have had to pay greater attention to the particular concerns and needs of blended families because also becoming more common is the courtroom brawls between stepparents and stepchildren and stepsiblings.

The first concern I hear from clients is often related to the financial security of the parents. If Mom moved into Stepdad’s home, what’s to keep Stepdad’s kids from kicking her out of the house if Stepdad were to die first?

The second concern is for the adult children’s prospective inheritance from their natural parent. Many state elective share laws dictate that when a person dies, the spouse naturally inherits a certain share of the estate, which will certainly cut into how much, if any, is left to the decedent’s natural children after the spouse dies.

In California, community property laws can be both a blessing and a nightmare for the adult children of a blended family. On one hand, generally, a surviving spouse doesn’t have a claim over to any property or account kept separately and in the deceased’s name.

However, any property that was held jointly (i.e., homes, common bank accounts) is presumed to be community property and, unless that presumption is rebutted in court, it passes entirely to the surviving spouse. And, even separate property may pass in whole or in part to the surviving spouse if the deceased partner leaves no will.

Older adults bring a greater amount of personal wealth into new relationships and, experts say, they are more practical about the financial realities their late-in-life marriage presents.

A prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can keep Mom in the house owned by Stepdad until her death at which point it passes solely to his children. Keeping property separate in trust accounts can prevent it from being transmuted into community property. And a clause inserted into Dad’s will can ensure that the separate property in his name passes to his children, not his spouse upon his death.

After you die, you could either be rolling in your grave because of the nasty legal battle you left your blended family or resting in peace.

James D. Perry

With wills and trusts, people tend to “set it and forget it.” But it’s important to revisit your will and trust documents at least every five years, or whenever there is a major life event – new children, new son or daughter in law, new grandchildren, divorce, remarriage, new property, etc.

Guardianship appointments should be current if you have minor children so that you can designate who will care for them if you die.

Your beneficiary designation forms determines who will get your insurance and retirement accounts. This too, should be updated periodically. If you named a sibling or your parents as your beneficiary when you were younger on these forms, you might now want to make sure they go to your spouse or children instead. Many people aren’t aware that these forms override stated wishes in your will so you should consider these documents in tandem to prevent confusion.

Keep all these documents in a safe place – a fire-proof safe, a clearly marked file in your file cabinet, a shared folder on your home computer, or ask your lawyer to hold on to them – and make sure your loved ones know where they can find them if and when they need them.

In a medical emergency, or in moments of mourning, you will not want your family and friends to be in a frenzy when all they want is to honor your wishes and your memory.

If you haven’t started any of these documents, you should immediately create a balance sheet that lists the basic information about your assets and schedule an appointment with your estate-planning attorney as soon as possible.

James D. Perry

At the end of May, parties claiming deceptive business practices by LegalZoom filed a class action lawsuit in California against the online legal document preparation service. They argue that LegalZoom’s advertisements give consumers “a false sense of security that people do not need hire a traditional attorney.”

In July 2007, Anthony Ferrentino asked his niece, Katherine Webster, to help him use LegalZoom to prepare a will and living trust. But, when Katherine went to transfer her uncle’s assets into the trust, she found that the financial institutions that held his money refused to recognize the LegalZoom documents as valid. Katherine tried to get help from LegalZoom’s customer service representatives to no avail, and the trust was still not funded when Anthony died in November 2007.

Katherine is now one of the plaintiffs in the suit against LegalZoom suing on behalf of herself and on behalf of anyone in California who paid LegalZoom for a living trust, will, advance directive for health care, or power of attorney.

The internet has brought a lot of convenience to our lives with its wealth of information, online shopping, and the ease of staying connected to our loved ones. But sometimes convenience means cutting corners, and the one area you don’t want to cut corners is in protecting your loved ones and your property.

These legal document preparation services are not the same as going to an actual attorney, but they do not clarify that in their user agreements. And, customer service representatives may look over your documents, but they cannot dispense legal advice, identifying problem areas or correcting mistakes. The documents are customized with your personal information, but they are not tailored to your needs.

After her uncle’s death, Katherine hired an estate planning attorney to petition the court to allow the post-death funding of the trust and to convince the banks to transfer the funds. The attorney also discovered that Anthony’s will was never properly witnessed.

Correcting the mistakes ended up costing Anthony’s estate thousands of dollars. Doing it right the first time would have saved time and money, and a lot of emotional stress. In the end, the “convenience” simply wasn’t worth it.

James D. Perry

A living will – called an advance directive for health care here in California – is an important part of your estate-planning arsenal. In the event of an accident or life-threatening incapacitation, an advance directive dictates your medical care and treatment preferences. This is especially helpful to family members and care providers because where there is uncertainty and disagreement, the court may have to step in.

An advance directive for heath care can fail its essential purpose, though, if it is ambiguous about treatment options and does not provide enough detailed guidance.

A recent MSNBC article highlighted this problem in the story of Bunny Olenick, an 87-year-old from Boston who became incapacitated by a severe stroke. She had a living will and a medical power of attorney, but her sons were left with questions about assisted breathing devices and feeding tubes and the quality of life she would sustain because of them.

She had stated that she didn’t want to be intubated or hooked up to a respirator, but did that preclude temporary nasogastric tubes for nutrition or a short-term oxygen mask?

Bunny’s sons were able to take advantage of palliative care counseling, which helped them navigate her legal documents and the preferences she had shared with them prior to her stroke.

However, had the sons gotten into a disagreement about Bunny’s wishes, they might have ended up petitioning a judge to appoint a medical proxy. The legal process is costly and ultimately may prolong an incapacitated individual’s life or suffering where he or she would not want it.

No one really likes to ponder their own death, but appropriate advanced planning can save you and your family pain and confusion in a time better spent saying goodbye.

James D. Perry