Hot Flashes & Cool Topics Podcast

Episode 37: Estate Planning in Midlife: An Organized (After)life

EPISODE SUMMARY:

Writing estate plans, distributing assets, and crafting wills often feel like overwhelming tasks. It can be difficult to figure out which steps to take first and how to create a plan that will ensure your loved ones are taken care of and adhere to your wishes. Today’s guest, Jennifer Gumbel, an attorney in Minnesota, specializes in making estate planning as easy and efficient as possible. In this week’s episode, we discuss how to get started on estate planning, distributing assets to family members, the best places to store your estate planning documents, and how to work through obstacles and difficult decisions that may come about during the whole process. 

Jennifer Gumbel

Jennifer Gumbel is currently an estate planning attorney in Austin, Minnesota. Initially, Jennifer dreamed of growing up to become a teacher. However, after shadowing an attorney, she found herself interested in “death law”, which consists of estate planning and probate law. Death has never been a topic Jennifer’s uncomfortable with, and through her work, she helps others deal with and comprehend the idea of it. Along with being an attorney, Jennifer also runs a blog and podcast, both of which deal with her experiences and knowledge practicing “death law”.  

Six Steps for Efficient Estate Planning

• Gather
  • List assets and debts
  • Collect information that confirms how things are owned now
    • Deeds
    • Titles
  • Check with financial institutions and financial planners, insurance agents, and benefits administrators to determine how things are set to transfer if you die now
• Check In
  • Meet with professionals to review ownership documents and beneficiary and death designations so you understand how you own them now, how things will transfer, and what should be changed
  • Meet with an attorney to discuss concerns you may not know about and who can craft documents tailored to your needs
• Reach Out
  • Determine who relies on you
  • Determine who would have an insecure future without you
  • Determine who you trust most with your assets, caring for any children, financial decisions, health care decisions
    • Make sure whomever you choose you talk with first to ensure they are comfortable taking on these responsibilities if necessary
  • Consider speaking with other family members so they know what to expect
• Execute
  • Work with an attorney to finalize the documents
    • Discuss any changes
    • Discuss how provisions in your documents will play out in various scenarios
    • Update ownership documents
      • Deeds
      • Car titles
      • Business certificates
    • Make changes to designations to reflect where they should go when you die
• Keep Up
  • As you acquire new assets, review ownerships documents and confirm proper ownership
  • Put your legal documents in a location easily accessible to your most trusted people
  • Consider a second location to keep copies of the legal documents
  • Consider including information like copies of ownership documents for major assets and information about debts
• Update
  • As major life events happen, meet with professionals to review documents and designations
    • Make sure they continue to work in the way you want and make any changes
  • Every few years, even if there haven’t been any major life events, meet with professionals to tune-up documents as needed

In this episode, we discuss…

[0:01] Introduction

[1:24] Guest Introduction

[3:55] Start of Interview

[4:15] How Jennifer Got Into Law

[6:16] First Steps of Planning

[7:22] Probate V.S. Non-probate Assets

[9:05] Importance of Drafting An Estate Plan

[11:23] Why Not Everybody Needs a Will

[12:52] Importance of Checking Your Own State’s Laws

[14:06] A Living Trust

[15:31] Estate Plans with Minors V.S. Adult Children

[17:59] Problems with Automatic Transfers

[19:46] Managing Marital Assets with Married and Divorced Children

[22:43] Must Haves for Estate Plans

[23:58] Trusts and Adult Children

[25:43] Retirement Assets

[27:22] Assets and Grandchildren

[29:00] Where to Keep Documents

[33:03] Importance of Talking to a Lawyer

[34:36] Suggestions for Mid-Life Women Avoiding Estate Planning

[38:33] Closing Thoughts

[40:01] Outro

Useful Resources:

Jennifer’s Website I [http://www.anorganizedafterlife.com/about/]

Twitter I [https://twitter.com/jgumbel]

Facebook I [https://www.facebook.com/anorganizedafterlife/]

Instagram I [https://www.instagram.com/jengumbel/]

Youtube I [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEko0KNkmtTZDNElliSu6sQ?view_as=subscriber]

Linkedin I [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifergumbel/]

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