Talking to your parents about estate planning

Estate planning is an important process for everyone, but it can be a more pressing matter for those who are getting older. With that in mind, you might have found your way to our blog because you’re concerned about your parents’ estate plan or lack thereof. It’s not uncommon for people to procrastinate in creating their estate plan, which puts them at risk of waiting until it’s too late. This outcome can lead to disastrous consequences that your parents never intended to occur. So, is there anything you can do to help your parents take the steps they need to start their estate planning journey?

Talking to your parents about estate planning

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help your parents make progress toward developing the estate plan they need and deserve. It starts with just discussing the matter, which might sound easy enough, but the truth is that that first step can be pretty challenging. So, here are some tips to help you initiate that difficult talk:

• Find a way in: Talking about mortality is hard. That’s why you need to plan how you want to broach the topic of estate planning. Think about talking about people you and your parents know who faced estate problems and couch it in terms of how you want to help your parents and your family avoid that outcome.
• Be empathetic: Recognize that this talk is going to be hard for your parents and be patient. Expect that the discussion isn’t going to be wrapped up in one talk, so don’t try to rush it and be understanding of the difficulties your parents are facing along the way.
• Focus on their values: There are certain things that are very important to your parents. Focus the estate planning discussion on that, whether it be supporting a charity or keeping things equal amongst children.
• Take notes: You want to make sure that your parents are able to clearly articulate what they want from their estate plan, which can be helped if you take notes and revisit estate planning-related topics that are important to them.
• Be transparent: Estate planning can be a sensitive topic for everyone in the family. By being transparent, you can avoid being accused of any sort of impropriety.

Estate planning attorneys can help

Just talking about estate planning can be challenging, but executing the perfect estate plan can be even more difficult. That’s why competent estate planning attorneys stand ready to help you and your parents develop a strategy that ensures that their vision of the future can realized through their estate plan.