What Documents Do You Need When Meeting with an Estate Planning Lawyer?
The effort you put into your estate planning reflects your commitment to your loved ones and your legacy, which makes it an important matter. If you’re just getting started or are making some changes in your estate planning tools, doing some prep work ahead of time – which generally translates to bringing the necessary documents – can help streamline the process considerably. In order to ensure that your wishes are carried out in the way you intend when the time comes, working with an experienced Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, estate planning lawyer from the start is always well-advised.
Estate Planning
Your estate planning efforts are intended to benefit your loved ones and, potentially, organizations or charities that are important to you. Your estate – or overall financial assets – reflects your hard work, and you undoubtedly want it to be distributed according to your wishes at the time of your death. And this is where your trusted estate planning lawyer comes in.
Proof of Identity
To ensure that your estate planning corresponds with you specifically, you’ll need to provide proof of your identity, which includes documentation like the following – as applicable:
- Your social security card
- Your birth certificate
- Your marriage license and any prenuptial agreement
- Any divorce decrees
Financial Records
When it comes to estate planning, you’ll need financial records that reflect the assets you’ve amassed over your lifetime. While your documentation won’t look exactly like anyone else’s, the basics include all the following:
- Your most current federal and state tax returns
- Your bank statements, including for both savings and checking accounts
- Documentation regarding any business or businesses you own, own jointly or have stock in
- Your life insurance policies
- Your investment portfolio
- Your mortgage or mortgages
- Any outstanding loans
- The titles and deeds for properties you own, including homes, vehicles, and real estate
- Your retirement accounts and any pensions
- Documentation regarding family heirlooms or other possessions of value, such as jewelry, watches, artwork, and collections
Your seasoned estate planning attorney will help you carefully assess your unique circumstances – ensuring that your assets are all accounted for.
Your Beneficiaries
Another important element of the documentation you bring with you when you meet with counsel is information about your beneficiaries – or those people and organizations your assets will pass to when you’re gone. Some estate planning tools are beneficiary-based, which means they are assigned to specific beneficiaries of your choosing, including retirement accounts and life insurance policies.
For many other assets, however, you’ll need to direct their distribution to beneficiaries through estate planning tools. For this, you’ll need to provide full names, birth dates, identifying information, and contact information – including addresses and phone numbers.
An Experienced Harrisburg Estate Planning Lawyer Is Standing By to Help
The skilled estate planning lawyers at Cunningham, Chernicoff & Warshawsky, P.C. – proudly serving Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – have decades of impressive experience providing clients like you with the peace of mind that comes from knowing their estate planning tools reflect their wishes and support their loved ones. Your financial legacy is important, so please don’t wait to reach out and contact us online or call 717-260-3527 for more information about what we can do to help you today.