So if you’re reading this article, then you may have already taken the highly important step of protecting your assets by creating an estate plan. This is something that should not be taken lightly because it protects you and your family. So what’s next? Time to have a family meeting. Listed below we have a few guidelines on what your meeting should consist of:
Let your family members, executors, and trustees know that you created an estate plan.
Keeping your family, executors and trustees informed is important so if one day you are unable to take care of yourself, you are prepared. The last thing you want to do when dealing with an emergency is to be unprepared and disorganized. For this can make a bad situation get out of control very quickly.
It’s best to focus on life and not death.
When it comes to planning your estate, life and death are a major factor in the planning process. So when you are having your meeting, focus the discussion on planning to live well, instead of planning to die well. By doing this, it will make the conversation a lot easier to handle.
Make sure you tell your family members your wishes and encourage them to discuss theirs.
This, by far, is one of the most important topics to bring up. Since you’ve gone through the estate process then you more than likely have already chose what’s going where and to whom. So now, in the case of an emergency, it is the time to make sure those people are informed of what to expect,so, when the time comes, they will know where to find the important documents and how to handle it. Not only should you tell your family about your wishes, you should encourage them to decide what they would like you to do in case something happened to them.
After you get all the hard stuff out of the way, end the meeting on a fun note..
So now since the hard parts over with, it’s time to lift everyone’s spirits by doing something fun following the meeting. Examples of how you could brighten up the mood is by taking everyone out for ice cream, looking at old photos, reminiscing on the old days, etc. Of course, nothing is going to completely take their minds off of the conversation but at least your family is ready for the unexpected the same way that you are.
You don’t have to tell them everything.
No one needs to know who inherits the bulk of your assets unless you want them to. So before the meeting take the time to decide what is most important to talk about and what is not.
