When you talk to people who have yet to do their estate planning, some of them will tell you that they just think they’re too young. If you ask them if they have a will, they’ll laugh and say that they don’t need one yet. They certainly haven’t used trusts or any other complex estate planning documents.
But is this true? Can you actually be too young for estate planning?
Estate plans can be updated at any time
First and foremost, remember that you can always update your estate plan. If you put it in place today and you want to make changes next year, or five years from now, or even 10 years from now, you can always do that. A lot of people believe that they’re too young because they need to make the plan after they’ve retired. But you could make the plan today and simply update it after you retire. You’re not too young now.
There are tools for young people
Additionally, there are estate planning tools that are more geared around young people than retirees or grandparents. For instance, a lot of parents make their estate plans because they want to pick guardians for their children. Some may want to set up things like a special needs trust. Others may simply want to create a medical advance directive or a power of attorney because they never know what’s going to happen with their medical condition and they want to be prepared in advance.
As you can see, the idea that you can be too young for estate planning is something of a myth. If you’d like to get your estate plan started soon, be sure you know exactly what steps you’ll need to take.