You Don’t Need To Have It All Figured Out

I’ve heard it a million times, “Hey, I’m going to come see you as soon I figure out what I want to do.” Your estate planning attorney will best serve you if you engage with them as early as possible.  While you will plan just one estate (your own), hopefully the attorney you choose will have successfully planned for hundreds of families through the years. So, it is best to use that experience in your favor. Often, an experienced advisor can suggest a few idea of how to best make the important choices you’ll face.

Your estate planning expert will ask a lot of questions: Do you have a successor in mind? How do you want to treat off-farm heirs? How do you want to shift management control and asset ownership – quickly or slowly or at a set point in the future? Do you need an LLC? An estate planning expert will want to know your business structure, your family dynamics and possible future managers and decisions makers.