With the holiday season upon us, especially this year, care and concern for family and loved ones takes on particular importance. Although contemplating what will happen to our assets should we lose capacity or pass away is not a typically joyful holiday pastime, thinking broadly about your main goals for your estate plan can provide a positive starting point. To help you get started, below are some of the most common estate planning objectives:

• Provide financially for oneself, spouse, children, or other friends and family members

• Minimize estate and income tax consequences

• Appoint a guardian for children

• Give to charities, churches, or other organizations

• Contribute to educational costs of loved ones

• Protect assets from creditors

• Appoint representatives in the event of incapacity

• Simplify the process of asset transfer for family members

• Give specific items of personal property to family or friends

• Avoid the probate process

Taking the time to consider what you wish to accomplish with your estate plan can make the process seem less daunting and provide a clear roadmap for developing your plan. For more information on ways to meet your estate planning objectives, take a look at this recent piece from Forbes.

Choosing a guardian for young children is almost always the most difficult estate planning decision parents face. If you are a parent, imagining someone else raising your children is unsettling. Worse, imagining a scenario in which your children must adapt to the loss of their parents in addition to an entirely new living situation is gut-wrenching. Though parents often agonize over this daunting decision, it is important to keep in mind that a probate court will make this decision for you if you do not express your wishes in your will or other written document before you pass away. While there is no perfect formula for selecting a guardian for your children, below are a few items for consideration:

1. Choose a friend or family member with shared values who will likely apply these same principles to raising your children.

2. Consider the guardian’s age, health, and general capacity to raise your children until adulthood.

3. Weigh the guardian’s financial stability. The guardian may manage your children’s inherited assets until they reach adulthood. Alternatively, parents may choose to name a separate individual to manage their children’s financial assets if another person would be more qualified.

4. Keep in mind that this decision is personal to you, the parents, and the future you see for your children. The opinions of others may be helpful, but should not control your final decision.

5. Ask the person you select to serve as guardian in advance to make sure they understand and agree to the undertaking.

6. List backups in case things change down the road and your first choice guardian no longer has the capacity or desire to handle raising your children.

All parents want the best for their children, so the anxiety parents feel when selecting a guardian is understandable and expected. Rest assured, you are not alone in these feelings of hesitation. Expressing your wishes in writing after careful deliberation is the best way to ensure the future you want for your children.

To all the moms out there navigating a brand new normal and juggling emotions ranging from guilt and fear to joy and gratitude, we are in this together one day at a time. Wishing you all a very Happy Mother’s Day!

The phrase “better together” takes on new meaning when it comes to estate planning for married couples. Spousal coordination and a shared understanding of financial and legal matters are essential to the successful execution of an estate plan.

A recent piece in Forbes provides helpful considerations for spouses working through an estate plan, as well as tips to ease the financial and legal burdens on a surviving spouse once the first spouse passes away. Four key takeaways from this article highlight the biggest mistakes married couples make from an estate planning perspective:

1. Lack of shared knowledge of financial assets and legal documents. Oftentimes, one spouse manages financial and legal matters, which can leave the other spouse feeling overwhelmed and lost when the managing spouse passes away. Both spouses should know where financial and legal documents are located so they can be easily accessed upon the death of one spouse. It is also important to keep a joint account with funds for emergency expenses and funeral costs that both spouses know how to access.

2. Individually-held accounts that do not name the spouse as beneficiary. Assets that do not transfer automatically through a beneficiary designation will pass through the probate court. This often means the surviving spouse will incur expenses that could have been avoided by utilizing beneficiary appointments or payable on death designations.

3. Failure to fund a trust that has been created. While a trust can be a very useful tool, trust language only applies to assets that have been titled in the name of the trust. Unfortunately, many neglect to actually place their assets into the trust, rendering the distributions spelled out in the trust ineffective.

4. Improper coordination of assets outside of a trust. Beneficiary designations made on retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and the like often conflict with distributions laid out in a subsequently-created estate plan. As such, assets that one might intend to pass through a trust or other estate planning tool will instead pass according to the previously-made beneficiary appointments. Whether or not a trust is utilized, it is always important to double check beneficiary designations to ensure proper coordination with an estate plan.

As with most marital matters, communication is the foundation of a solid estate plan.

For new parents, developing an estate plan can seem like a daunting task.  Where do you even begin to make sure that your little ones are taken care of if the unthinkable happens?  The four special considerations below provide a good starting point for parents of young children who are ready to get their estate plan in order:

1. Appoint a guardian in your will to take over parenting responsibilities in the event that you and your children's other parent pass away.  Although this is typically the hardest decision for parents to make, a court will choose an individual to take over if you fail to name a guardian on your own.

2. Select a trusted individual or financial institution (a trustee) to handle your assets on behalf of your children if you pass away while they are still young.  This could be the guardian you have appointed, or you may choose another individual to act as trustee if you prefer to keep powers separate.

3. Choose an age or life event or achievement at which time you would like your children to receive your assets outright without the involvement of a trustee.  Many parents prefer to withhold outright distribution of assets until children exceed college age, but distribution could also be contingent upon milestones such as graduation, marriage, or purchase of a home.

4. Check your listed beneficiaries on life insurance, retirement, and other types of accounts to make sure your primary and alternate beneficiaries are up to date.  Any such beneficiary designations will occur automatically upon your death and will trump gifts made in your will.

If you take the time to think through these four considerations, you are well on your way to making sure your children are taken care of by your estate plan.