Safeguarding You and Your Life’s Work
By Jay Greene, Esquire/CPA | Greene Estate, Probate, and Elder Law Firm
This guest post from long-time member and GGBA board member Jay Greene of Greene Estate, Probate, and Elder Law Firm (www.assetprotectionbayarea.com) provides advice about the importance of creating an effective estate plan for you and your loved ones.With over half of American adults not having an estate plan, it's difficult to know what your options are and what decision is best. Estate planning isn’t about how much money you have. Estate Planning is about you, safeguarding your life’s work, and protecting those you love after you’re gone. Whether you become disabled or die, a proper plan will make sure that what you have gets to the people you love, the way you want, when you want without unnecessary cost or delay.If you were to die or become disabled today, are you certain that everything will be taken care of the way you want? Estate planning is legally ensuring things will be handled the way you want by providing your set of instructions instead of relying on the plan that the government has created for you.Estate planning really is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you have $40,000 or $4 Million. Everyone needs to plan for their future. Whether it’s to name a guardian for your children, trustee if you become disabled, or ensure your loved ones don’t lose your assets when you die.Proper estate planning is more than just feeling better about filling out a boilerplate form. Estate planning is about actually achieving your goals. This can only be accomplished by using an experienced estate planning attorney, who knows about probate, tax, business law, family law, veteran’s benefits, and Medi-Cal. A plan can be simple or complex. It’s really up to you.
Keeping your Estate Plan current
Once completed, your estate plan should be reviewed and kept current with life events such as birth, death, marriage or divorce of anyone included in your plan. The one constant in life is change. You can count on it. Things change. No matter how hard we try to keep them the same, the inevitable will occur. That includes relationships. Relationships change, usually over time… sometimes long periods of time and sometimes not so long. As relationships change, consider changing your plan for the future. If you want to learn more about estate planning, join any one of our workshops! We regularly hold workshops in the Castro and San Francisco. You can register here: www.assetprotectionbayarea.com.
Jay’s free workshops will provide you with a step by step educational experience covering the fundamentals of estate planning and asset protection, whether you are a small business owner, parents with children, or considering long term care.Our next workshop is the “7 Threats to Your Security” on Thursday, May 25, 2017, 6:30pm at GGBA member, Spark Arts Event Space, 4229 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114. Please register online at www.assetprotectionbayarea.com to reserve your seat or call 415-905-0215.Jay Greene Law Firm has been recognized by the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce as a Certified LGBT Business Enterprise TM (LGBTBE)
