By Deanna Parmenter

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of activity for me personally.  My son announces he is getting married.  I suddenly have three more grandchildren born earlier than expected.  My other son will likely deploy to Afghanistan or some other “very friendly” place in the near future.  Aside from the usual emotions one feels at the happy, and sometimes not so happy, events that occur in our lives, we should also prepare for that time when we won’t be around to help our children.

Most people don’t like thinking about their own death.  I know I don’t.  But with all the events that have happened to my family in the last few months, and especially because I tend to engage in risky activities like riding motorcycles and hiking in remote corners of the world, I know it’s important. 

If you die without a will, called “intestate”, the state will apply certain laws to decide who gets what.  And you may not want your money or possession to go to the people the law designates.  Check out this web site for a brief description of the laws in Texas for dying without a will.  You can avoid this problem by preparing various estate planning documents.  Some of the basic documents are described by Wikipedia as:

1. A will is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his estate and provides for the transfer of his property at death. For the devolution of property not disposed of by will, see inheritance and intestacy.  In the strictest sense, a "will" has historically been limited to real property while "testament" applies only to dispositions of personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "Last Will and Testament"), though this distinction is seldom observed today.
    

2. A trust is a relationship whereby property (real or personal, tangible or intangible) is held by one party for the benefit of another. A trust conventionally arises when property is transferred by one party to be held by another party for the benefit of a third party, although it is also possible for a legal owner to create a trust of property without transferring it to anyone else, simply by declaring that the property will henceforth be held for the benefit of the beneficiary. A trust is created by a settlor, who transfers some or all of his property to a trustee, who holds that trust property for the benefit of the beneficiaries. The trustee has legal title to the trust property, but the beneficiaries have equitable title to the trust property (separation of control and ownership). The trustee owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, who are the "beneficial" owners of the trust property. (Note: A trustee may be either a natural person, or an artificial person (such as a company or a public body), and there may be a single trustee or multiple co-trustees. There may be a single beneficiary or multiple beneficiaries. The settlor may himself be a beneficiary.)
    

3. An advance health care directive, also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, or advance decision, are instructions given by individuals specifying what actions should be taken for their health in the event that they are no longer able to make decisions due to illness or incapacity, and appoints a person to make such decisions on their behalf. A living will is one form of advance directive, leaving instructions for treatment. Another form authorizes a specific type of power of attorney or health care proxy, where someone is appointed by the individual to make decisions on their behalf when they are incapacitated.
    

It’s also a good idea to write a letter to your family explaining your wishes for your funeral service or other arrangements so they don’t have to make these decisions without you.  For example, what songs do you want played at your funeral?  Do you even want a funeral or do you want to be cremated?  I would love to be able to hear the reactions when my children discover that I want my cremated remains to be released at the top of my favorite mountain hike.  Would love to see who volunteers for that one!

Now that you’ve decided to prepare your estate planning documents, how do you get started?  There are several sources, depending on how complex your situation is and how much money you have.  Here are the most common, from most expensive to least expensive:

• Hire an estate planning attorney.  You can search for an attorney in your area by searching the Martindale Hubbell site that all lawyers subscribe to.  Or if you like you can contact me and I can recommend a couple of very good board-certified estate planning attorneys here in Houston.
• Contact your local funeral home to see if they have form documents you can use or if they can recommend someone to prepare the documents for you.  In the Cy-Fair area, the largest funeral homes I’m aware of are Cypress-Fairbanks Funeral Home, Klein Funeral Home, or Brookside Funeral Home.
• Purchase a CD or manual online from Amazon or other online shopping site and use their examples to create documents tailor made to your situation.
• Purchase prepared forms from your local office supply store (either Office Max or Office Depot).
• Borrow documents from a friend who has a situation similar to yours and modify the information to fit your family (not really recommended, but will do in a pinch if money is really tight).
   

Any way you decide to do it, preparing the necessary documents will help you and your family in so many ways that it would be foolish not to have them.  Estate planning documents can:

• Ensure your possessions and money are distributed in the way that you want and not some arbitrary distribution decided by state legislators.
• Speed up the decision making process for doctors and hospitals when a medical emergency means that you cannot speak for yourself – your family will already know your wishes.
• Reduce or eliminate the fights that occur within families as they divide up mom’s favorite china or dad’s tools.
• Provide peace of mind that you have done all you can to reduce the stress for your family during a very emotionally overwhelming time in their lives.
   

I’m relieved to know that my documents are up to date.  Now, where was that adventure safari travel brochure…