Your Legacy: Why Estate Planning Is Non-Negotiable
The single greatest gift you can give your loved ones is a clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date Estate Plan. It is a foundational element of sound financial health—not just for the wealthy, but for every individual who owns assets or has dependents.
Estate planning is the process of arranging for the management and disposal of your estate during your life and after your death. It’s about protecting your assets, ensuring your wishes are honored, and, most importantly, protecting your family from unnecessary stress, expense, and legal battles.
The Core Pillars of a Comprehensive Estate Plan
A strong estate plan is built on several key documents. Using the NetLaw platform, our clients receive an integrated package that covers the essential elements of protecting their family and finances.
The core documents included in the NetLaw Package are:
Last Will and Testament: Specifies how assets are distributed, names the Executor to manage your estate, and appoints a Guardian for any minor children.
Probate Avoidance Living Trust: This trust holds your assets during your lifetime and allows for their transfer to beneficiaries upon death, avoiding the public and time-consuming probate process. The package includes a guide for funding this trust.
Power of Attorney (POA): Authorizes a trusted individual to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated.
Living Will/Advance Directives: Documents your preferences regarding life-sustaining medical treatments and end-of-life care.
Healthcare Surrogate/Proxy: Names an individual to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to communicate your wishes.
HIPAA Authorization: Allows designated individuals (like your healthcare surrogate or family) to access your protected health information.
Pet Trust: Provides for the care and welfare of your pets after you are gone.
While life insurance is primarily known for the death benefit, many modern policies come equipped with "Living Benefits." These are features, often added as riders, that allow the policyholder to access a portion of their policy's death benefit while they are still alive, if they experience a qualifying serious illness or condition.
Common Living Benefits (or Accelerated Death Benefit Riders) include:
Terminal Illness: Allows you to access a portion of the death benefit if you are diagnosed with an illness expected to result in death within a specified time frame (e.g., 12 or 24 months).
Chronic Illness: Provides access to funds if you are diagnosed with a chronic illness and are unable to perform a certain number of the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) or have severe cognitive impairment, often used to help cover costs associated with long-term care.
Critical Illness: Provides a lump sum if you suffer from a covered critical medical event like a heart attack, stroke, or invasive cancer.
We Leverage NetLaw
Our partnership with NetLaw allows us to deliver a seamless, attorney-led estate planning experience. The documents are prepared and reviewed by licensed, state-specific attorneys, ensuring the highest level of legal confidence.
Key Advantages of the NetLaw Package
One-Time Purchase with Lifetime Access: The NetLaw Legacy package offers clients unlimited changes to all the included documents for life, ensuring your plan stays current as your life or the law changes. You retain full access to your secure digital vault for all documents.
Attorney-Led Process: All planning is executed with the counsel of experienced attorneys, combining the ease of technology with professional legal expertise.
Fixed-Fee Transparency: Services are provided at a transparent, fixed-fee, eliminating the uncertainty of billable hours often found in traditional legal services.
Seamless Advisor Integration: The platform gives us, your financial advisor, visibility into the legal process, ensuring your estate plan is perfectly aligned with your broader financial and wealth transfer strategy.
Special Considerations: Protecting Loved Ones with NetLaw
We help clients with complex planning needs, including those with family members who require lifelong care, by utilizing advanced planning tools.
Special Needs Trust (SNT): While often an add-on cost, this trust is essential for holding assets for a person with a disability without jeopardizing their eligibility for vital government assistance programs (like Medicaid or SSI). This ensures the funds supplement their benefits, enhancing their quality of life.
Million Dollar Baby Trust: Another add-on option, which can provide more sophisticated planning for the inheritance of younger beneficiaries.
Estate planning is not about anticipating death; it’s about guaranteeing life continues smoothly for the people you care about most. Ready to protect your legacy?