Indulge In A Caring Gift To Your Valentine—Plan Your Estate Today!

By now each one of us would be knowing what is Valentine’s day. It is also a day where you should take a pause, think if your loved ones are well taken care of during your lifetime and also post your lifetime. Of course during your lifetime you know how to take care of your loved ones. You would have given them the best of education, the best possible standard of living, good house, good clothes, flowers, chocolates and whatever else they love to have and will relish. It is also important they maintain the same standard of living if not more after one’s lifetime.

Estate Planning is required for everyone irrespective of the size of wealth you hold. You do not want your valentine - your near and dear ones - to suffer after your lifetime. That is why Estate Planning is required.

You all must be leading a busy life earning and saving money for yourself and your valentine - near and dear ones. It is important that all these savings reach the right hand after your lifetime. Else all the hard work that you are doing goes waste and someone else reaps the benefit of all your hard work and your valentines - near and dear ones - are left high and dry.

It is a known fact that if you do not have Estate Planning your Valentine is left in a lurch and they will have to run pillar to post to get a Legal Heir Certificate or Succession Certificate. It becomes a very complicated and big exercise and sometimes also becomes a very costly exercise. So how do we start the basic estate planning exercises.

Inventory your tangible and intangible assets: To start off Estate Planning you should start off by listing all your tangible and intangible assets. Tangible assets are like:

Real estates like home, land, properties etc.

Vehicles like cars, motorcycles, private aircrafts, horses, camels, boats.

Coins, arts, antiques or trading cards.

Any other assets which have value.

The intangible assets include:

Bank accounts, securities, shares, mutual funds, life insurance policies

Intellectual Properties

Business ownership etc

You may also estimate a value for all your assets - both tangible and intangible assets.

Plan the need for each of your Near and Dear ones: Once you list down all the assets, determine whom all these assets have to go. There may be few who may require and manage intangible assets better. Based on the requirement, ability, contribution to you and other factors you may determine the assets which needs to be allocated to your Valentine - Near and Dear ones.

A Will or a Trust: In this Article, I am not identifying which will be a better - A will or a Trust. I have written another article which clearly brings out the mode of Estate Planning. But now you should decide on writing a Will and registering it or setting up of a Trust. Drafting of a Will and registering it is simpler but it has its own cons. If You have limited assets you can easily Write a Will and register it. If you can afford an Estate Planning attorney, you should go ahead and set up a Trust to pass on the assets to your Valentine. You can name multiple people as Beneficiaries in the Trust to whom you may want the benefits to be transferred.

Have Adequate Medical Insurance: It is critical during these trying times of pandemic that you should have adequate medical insurance for yourself and your valentine - near and dear ones. Ensure that they are adequately protected with a good Medical Insurance Company. This will really come in handy during trying times. Now a days hospital expenses have substantially increased and such an insurance premium is going to be substantially helpful. This can also be a Valentine Gift to your near and dear ones.

Have Adequate Life Insurance: You should have adequate life insurance in a family. The earning member of the family should have substantial life insurance. Even if in the unforeseen circumstance the earning member is not there, the other near and dear ones should not suffer because of the sudden death of the earning members. The valentine’s - near and dear ones- if not better, should have at least similar standard of living in your absence. Keep paying your insurance premiums regularly without any delay.

Indulge in a Caring Gift to your Valentine: What better gift can you offer to your Valentine than any of the ones that I have mentioned above. A candle light dinner, flowers, chocolates are all temporary gifts. But the gifts that are mentioned above are permanent and will leave your memories in it for a lifetime. These gifts will also keep your near and dear ones happy even after you depart. 

So make this Valentine day impactful. Bring better life for your Valentine !! Happy Valentine’s Day !!