Do You Need an Estate Planning Attorney in the San Francisco Peninsula? Probably.

Contrary to what some believe, San Francisco Peninsula estate planning attorneys aren’t here just for the wealthiest members of our community. In fact, after years of experience, we come to see how nearly every person in the San Francisco Peninsula can benefit from putting together an estate plan, including a will. While you may not feel that you have a lot of assets to protect or believe that your family knows your wishes and will follow them, here are some points to ponder in determining if perhaps you really should hire a San Francisco Peninsula estate planning attorney after all.

Make Your Estate More Valuable

The idea of making an estate more valuable should actually be pretty important to those who don’t consider themselves to be “wealthy.” With the help of a good estate planning lawyer, you can work toward a more comfortable future, as well as to maximize the assets that you do have. With a retirement plan, life insurance, and other planning tools, things can start to look a lot different than you expected. Not only that, but you’ll also be able to leave an inheritance behind for your loved ones.

Protect Your Privacy (and Your Family’s) When working with an estate planning attorney in the San Francisco Peninsula, you will want to look at the possibility of setting up some sort of trust. Again, these types of legal tools are NOT just for the rich or well-to-do. There are many, many advantages to having a trust, but one of those that resonates with a lot of folks in the Peninsula is the fact that assets placed into a trust do not generally have to go through the very public probate process. This affords substantially more privacy regarding your estate, what you’ve left behind, and other details that you’d prefer to keep private.

Name Guardians for Your Children

No matter how much money you’ve got in the bank or elsewhere, if you have minor children, there is no question that you need to hire an estate planning attorney to draw up guardianship and other important documents. If you become incapacitated or pass away without these incredibly important papers, then you are basically giving the court system carte blanche to determine what happens to your children. They make these decisions based on certain legal precedents, and there is a dangerously high chance that the guardian chosen for your minor children will NOT be the person you would have chosen. This should be enough to send pretty much every parent in the San Francisco Peninsula running to a good estate planning attorney!

Do It While You Can

It’s not uncommon for San Francisco Peninsula residents to want to put off estate planning until they absolutely have to think about it. The problem that they and their estate planning attorney run into, however, is that you can wait too long. When putting together a will or other estate planning documents, the court needs to be satisfied that you are of sound mind. If you’ve recently found out you’re gravely ill or are losing cognitive function, an estate plan can be disputed and ultimately rendered invalid on those grounds.

The bottom line is that nearly everyone in the San Francisco Peninsula would end up in a better position by working with an estate planning attorney. From professional retirement planning to naming guardians to protecting your own privacy and more, if you haven’t yet started the process, now is definitely the time.