Coronavirus and Your Estate Plan

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is still less likely to cause your untimely demise than many other risks in life. At the same time, the current crisis is a good time to take stock of your estate plan. You may suddenly have time on your hands if you are sheltering in place or working remotely. And there is nothing like being in the midst of pandemic to serve as a gentle reminder that there are some things we should all be taking care of.

Why an Estate Plan is Important

Having an estate plan in place is important for many reasons:

If you have young children, the first priority for many is making clear who should raise them if something were to happen to both parents.
The second is to make sure your hard-earned assets go to the people you want them to. If you pass without a will, the state will distribute your assets according to what it assumes most people want. This may not be what you want, especially if you have a blended or non traditional family.
The third is to avoid probate and protect your heirs from spending 3-6% of the value of your estate on legal and court fees.
The fourth is to protect your family from Massachusetts estate taxes, which affect more middle class families that you might think.
A fifth goal for many is to shelter some assets from the future costs of long term care, which can be substantial.
Finally, a good estate plan will include a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy. These documents identify the people with the power to make financial, legal and medical decisions for you if you are incapacitated.

The bottom line is that, Coronavirus or no Coronavirus, these are things that are important for everyone to address.

Why This is the Right Time to Address Your Estate Plan

To repeat, COVID-19 is most likely not a mortal threat to most people. But it is common for people to turn their attention to their estate planning documents when faced with even the most remote risk.

For example, many young couples reach out to create an estate plan the first time they will both be flying on an airplane without their children. Like air travel, the COVID-19 is simply a reminder that this is something that should be taken care of.

There are also some risks other than death to consider in the pandemic. If you or your spouse need to be hospitalized, you will want to be sure you have a health care proxy in place.

You will also want to be sure someone holds your durable power of attorney so that they can pay bills and otherwise take care of your business and personal finances until you recover. If your spouse is the named individual in these documents, you may want to add an alternate in case you are both sick at the same time.

The other reason this is the right time is that you may finally have some time to think about it. Estate planning is one of those things for most people that falls down on the "to-do" list after other, more time sensitive responsibilities. Being forced to stay home for days or weeks on end may create the perfect opportunity for you and your family to take action on your estate plan.

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Addressing Your Estate Plan While Staying Remote

Following guidance from authorities, including the Center for Disease Control ("CDC"), most states have shut down schools and large social gatherings. Many workplaces have gone largely or completely remote, and some states have even issued "shelter in place" orders requiring people to stay home except for getting essentials like groceries and medicines.

For all of these reasons, it may hardly seem to be the time to make an appointment with a law firm to discuss your estate plan. But the truth is you can take care of almost everything without leaving your home.

The simplest step is to check your beneficiary designations on your life insurance policy and retirement accounts. You may be able to take care of this with a phone call, or even online.

Even getting legal advice from an estate planning attorney does not require you to leave your home. At slnlaw, we are already used to conducting the initial consult and follow up discussions with clients via telephone or video conference. We can provide you drafts electronically, and go through them with you by video.

As to actually signing your final documents, the law still requires that you have in person witnesses to your signature, and it is best practice to have important documents also attested to by a notary public. Even this does not necessarily require that you visit a lawyer's office. If you have nearby friends or neighbors who can witness your signature, there are mobile notaries who for a modest fee will come to you to notarize your signature.

If you would rather come in to sign your documents, we can also help you. We have a large enough conference room that our team can witness your signature from 15-20 feet away, and get you on your way with a complete and finalized estate plan in place.

Even if you decide to wait to execute the documents until this crisis has passed, if you take action now you will have made great strides toward taking care of something we all know needs to be done.

How Can We Help?

We are ready to help, and can put your plan in place through phone, video and electronic communication so that you can stay safe and at home. You can use the button below to schedule a call back from a member of our team, give us a call at 781-784-2322, or fill out our web form to let us know a little more about your situation.

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