Reaching a certain age is one of the most common reasons for most people to finally sit down and do the work in creating an estate plan. Whatever that age might be for you, you realize that you should have certain legal documents in place at that point in time and go about the process of setting these up. Estate planning is one of those things that gets more complex as it progresses. 

Usually this progression is aligned specifically with your stages in life rather than an age you have in the back of your mind. Four primary categorizations help you determine what type of estate planning you need right now. 

The first is those individuals who are young with limited assets. Even if you assume that you don't need planning support because of these limited assets, there are important steps you can take to ensure that you appoint a power of attorney agent and maintain a basic will. 

The next phase for estate planning is when you have young children and need to update your will to include a guardian for those minor children. 

The third phase is as you are nearing retirement and are looking to ensure that you have a proper long-term care plan in place as well as necessary retirement strategies. 

The final stage is when you are concerned about your long-term care and health care expenses after retirement and ensuring that you have enough assets to live many years beyond as well as to pass on assets to the beneficiaries you care about. 

No matter what your current stage in life is, the support of an Estate Planning Attorney can help you to untangle the most common questions and identify the types of strategies and tactics aligned with where you are now and where you hope your estate planning to go.      

Sit down with an Orange County Estate Planning Attorney today.