Estate Planning After a Tragedy: Planning for the Future
Experiencing a close call or watching a loved one go through a painful loss can often be the catalyst for change. If tragedy in your life has pushed you to look into estate planning attorneys, you’re not alone—seeing the fallout of an unmanaged estate can be enough to make anyone start preparing for the future.
The team of Oklahoma estate planning attorneys at Entz Burton & Associates, founded by attorneys J. Michael Entz and Jeffrey Burton, understands the importance of a personalized estate plan. You’ve taken your own path to build your legacy in life—you deserve to have your legacy protected long after you’re gone. We can help you with the tools and planning strategies you need. Call our estate planning lawyers at 405-773-9800 to set up a time to discuss your needs now
How Tragedy Can Influence Estate Planning
A growing number of people seek out estate planning lawyers after watching someone in their life go through unspeakable tragedy. Logically, we all always know that any moment could be our last. But it’s an entirely different thing to see it unfold for someone we love. Perhaps you watched a family member lose their spouse, only to lose much of their spouse’s hard-earned assets to a contested will.
Or perhaps the loss was almost your own. Maybe you were in an accident that could have killed you, and you realized in the aftermath that you have no idea if your loved ones would be properly provided for.
When something makes you consider your impact and how you want your assets to support those you love, taking action with an estate planning law firm is essential.
Making the Best Decisions for Your Family
While tragedy or trauma may give you the push you need to start planning your estate, it’s important to ensure that your decisions are guided by logic and backed by lots of introspection. Yes, you want to be prepared for whatever may happen in the near or distant future. However, you don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the worst-case scenario is unlikely to happen. It’s like buying home insurance. You don’t buy home insurance and then worry every day about your home being struck by lightning—but at least you know that if it is, you’ve taken the right steps ahead of time.
With that in mind, you may want to start your plan by thinking about what you want your legacy to look like—both for your close loved ones and your community as a whole. Do you want a simple distribution of your assets that provides for your children and spouse? Or do you have a complex portfolio of assets that you want to use to support important causes and provide for those in your extended family?
Taking the First Steps
Some people think that they have to have a complete plan in place before they reach out to an estate planning attorney, but that isn’t true. We’re here to help everyone, no matter where they are in the estate planning process. If you know nothing more about estate planning than what a will is, we can help; if you know where you want your assets to go and how you want them to help others, we can help.
Our estate planning law firm will explore a variety of planning tools to help you achieve your goals. However, estate planning goes beyond how your assets are handled after your passing. It also looks at how you can protect yourself, your finances, and your healthcare wishes should you become incapacitated. By asking the tough questions and providing different perspectives, we hope to assist you in creating a plan that fully serves your needs.
An estate plan must be able to evolve as your life changes. Once your plan is complete, we’ll revisit it with you on a regular basis to keep it relevant and applicable as your family grows and changes.
Reach Out to Entz Burton & Associates Today
If you’ve been wondering if this is the year that you should get your affairs in order, then it’s time to meet with the team at Entz Burton & Associates. Call us at 405-773-9800 or reach out online to set up a time to meet with our experienced attorneys.
Attorney J. Michael Entz at Entz Burton & Associates is an experience lawyer in estate planning law, business formation and asset protection serving the families in Oklahoma City and Weatherford office.
