Tag: legal topics

Estate planning is arranging for the orderly transfer of your property and resources to other people during life and after death. Your estate is essentially everything that you own. Your property and resources can be transferred through beneficiaries identified in documents (i.e., pensions and life insurance policies), wills, trusts, gifts, and joint ownership of property—all of which can be part of an estate plan.

Since you may accumulate many resources during your lifetime, you will probably want to decide to …

It is sometimes necessary to change a will. A codicil is a legal document that amends a will. You might find it necessary to make changes when the following events occur:

• Marriage, remarriage, or divorce
• Birth of a child
• Move to another state
• Acquisition of additional assets
• Changes in federal and state laws

Divorce and separation can affect a will. In some states, divorce can revoke the entire will. In other states, it revokes only those provisions in the will …

A durable power of attorney for health care allows you to choose someone (generally referred to as a health-care or medical “agent,” “representative,” or “proxy”) who will make health-care decisions for you when you can no longer communicate. You may designate your spouse, another family member, a close personal friend, or other trusted person of legal age—preferably, someone who lives near you. Talk to the person you choose to be sure he or she is capable of carrying out your …

This page contains the entire Communicate Your Advance Directives for Health Care lesson to enable you to print a section or the whole lesson.

Return to the Communicate Your Advance Directives for Health Care lesson.

If you had a serious accident or illness that caused permanent loss of mental capacity, leaving you unable to tell your doctor which medical treatments you did or did not want, would your loved ones know what to do? Who would make these decisions for …

Although you may change your will whenever you wish, there are three basic reasons to consider revising it:

• There has been a change in your life.
• There has been a change in the law.
• You have changed your mind about specific provisions (for example, including or excluding a friend or family member to be a beneficiary of your property).

Life events that may trigger the need to update your will, trust, living will, powers of attorney, or other estate- or …

Acknowledgments

Legally Secure Your Financial Future is a self-study curriculum to help you organize your important papers, communicate your wishes about legal and other issues, and prepare your financial affairs.

Content development by:

Marilyn C. Bischoff, M.S., Team Leader
Extension Professor and Family Economics Specialist
University of Idaho Extension
Boise, ID

Joanne Bankston, Ph.D.
Family Economics and Management Specialist
Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension Program
Frankfort, KY

Elizabeth E. Gorham, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Extension Family Resource Management …

Material in this web site is not intended to be a substitute for legal advice. Rather, it is designed to help families become better acquainted with some of the devices used in estate planning and to create an awareness of the need for such planning. Future changes in laws cannot be predicted, and statements within this lesson, fact sheets and learning activities are based solely upon those laws in force on the last revised date of the web site or …