Kids in Austin and throughout Texas are heading back to school.
While many parents welcome a vacation from the summer vacation, preparing for the first day of school each year takes significant effort, time, and resources. Parents must make sure that they provide all of the required tools and materials for their children to succeed in school in the coming year. Making certain that your children are ready for the new school year becomes a top priority for parents every fall.
In the same way, preparing for the unexpected and how to protect your children if this were to happen also requires thought and planning. This too should be top priority for parents.
As a part of your estate planning strategy, attorney Pamela Hailey-Petty encourages parents to make wise decisions about the plans for your children’s care and well-being in the event that you and your spouse are not around. If you fail to do this, you leave these important decisions to the courts about how to safeguard and raise your children. This is called a guardianship, which is a court-supervised program for your children’s care and to protect your property that is left to them when you pass away. These types of proceedings can be expensive and time-consuming.
Instead of this, Pam suggests that you consider creating a trust to control and manage your property and other assets on your children’s behalf with specific details on the way you’d like this done.
Many people think that trusts are only for the wealthy. Not so. An attorney can create a trust as part of your will to be funded when you die. This type of trust should be strongly considered as part of your estate plan if you have minor children.
You also want to appoint a trustee and an alternate, people with whom you are comfortable with the lives of your children, and with whom you are confident will bring up your children “the right way.”
Get back into the swing of things with the new school year, and while you’re at it, take the time to prepare for your children’s future by discussing all of the options for their care and well-being with an experienced attorney. Talk to Pamela Hailey-Petty about trusts by contacting the Hailey-Petty Law Firm in Austin at (512) 910-8977 or email pam@haileypettylaw.com.
Your future and the future of your children are our business.