Ask the experts: Finance professionals answer common estate-planning questions

Making end-of-life decisions and discussing them with loved ones can be uncomfortable and is not something most people enjoy. Estate planning is important, though, and it's essential if you want to have your wishes carried out after your demise.

We talked to a group of professional attorneys and financial advisers who shared their knowledge and advice so you can begin the process of setting your affairs in order, if you've not already done so.

Our panel of experts includes Tyler Cuba, managing partner at Cuba Financial Group, JP Thompson, founding partner of Thompson Financial Advisors, attorney Alexa Hart-Lorenz, a partner in Lorenz & Lorenz LLC, and Laura Clubb, a partner in The Clubb Law Firm. Clubb worked closely with the Missouri End of Life Coalition when she worked for the Missouri Attorney General's office. She helped them write a booklet, "Life Choices," which is available on the attorney general's website, www.ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/publications/lifechoices.pdf?sfvrsn=6.

__TBY: What's the first step in estate planning?__

Laura ClubbSubmitted photo

__CLUBB:__ The first step in planning your estate is understanding that it involves much more than just deciding who gets family heirlooms or insurance money. Estate planning is a process that will help you make critical decisions about the end of your life. It is a mechanism to start having some very important conversations with your loved ones, such as about who will make your health-care decisions if you become incapacitated, or about whether you want life-prolonging medical interventions if you're ill, or about who will care for your minor children, or about who will pay your bills if you're hospitalized, or about how you can transition your assets to your loved ones in the easiest possible way for them.

__HART-LORENZ:__ Deciding to tackle it and get it done, and finding a professional with whom you are comfortable and feel that you can have a good working relationship.

Tyler CubaGlenn Landberg

Tyler CubaGlenn Landberg

__CUBA:__ Estate planning is an ongoing process, but the first step is seriously taking an inventory of the things you want to protect and care for should you pass away or become disabled. This may include your dependent children, titled assets or certain responsibilities. Then give thought to how each of these should be handled, divided or addressed. Estate planning requires significant time and serious thought to efficiently address the issues that happen when you have no plan.

__THOMPSON:__ I believe the first priority in estate planning is to identify your goals, aspirations and objectives that are most important to you. Estate planning should be seen simply as keeping your voice heard after you have left this earth. This will not only give you peace of mind, but more importantly a road map for your loved ones or other people and causes that are most valuable to you.

__TBY: What are some things you want to know from your clients regarding their estate planning?__

__CLUBB:__ I typically email my clients a detailed form that asks them to list their assets and debts, life insurance policies, retirement or pension plans, names and info about their children or other beneficiaries. I also want to know about their wishes for guardianship of their minor children and whether they want to be buried or cremated. Once I have this basic information, then I meet with the clients to determine their wishes and to decide which estate planning tools (wills, trusts, powers of attorney, etc.) will achieve their goals.

Alexa Hart-LorenzSubmitted photo

__HART-LORENZ:__ If there are existing estate documents that may need a change or update, it's important for me to review a copy of these so I know where the client stands. Often, existing documents can be easily amended or added to in order to incorporate the changes rather than creating entirely new documents, which can be a time and cost savings. Regardless of whether there are existing documents to consider, it's helpful for my clients to have thought a bit in quiet moments about where and how they want their assets to be distributed.

__CUBA:__ To begin helping a client with estate-planning needs, it is extremely important for us to understand -- first and foremost -- what they have and who, and/or what, is important to them. Upon understanding these things, the discussion transitions to how do we distribute the things they own to those they wish to have them. It's important to understand the various dynamics within each family to appropriately structure a plan that addresses the specific wants and needs of the client. For instance, clients may place assets in trust for a child who has troubles with money or substance abuse, they may want to protect their young children from receiving a windfall at a vulnerable age, or wish to create a family endowment fund to carry out philanthropic desires in perpetuity.

__TBY: What advice do you give people about where or with whom to leave information about their estates?__

__CLUBB:__ Our office keeps scanned copies of all of the estate planning documents we draft. If a client needs another copy, we can simply email it. We tell them to keep original documents in a fireproof safe and to give copies of their health-care directives and health-care powers of attorney to their primary-care physicians.

An issue that is new to the last decade is the management of online estates. That is, determining who takes care of the deceased person's email, Facebook, Twitter or other online accounts. For example, Gmail now allows its users to designate a person to serve as proxy and have access to a user's email account if the owner is deceased. You can also use Gmail's Inactive Account Manager function to let the provider know who can access your account when you die.

__HART-LORENZ:__ I advise my clients to place original estate documents in the same place they keep other important papers. The people you appoint to administer your estate need to be able to locate these documents, of course, often on short notice, so putting these somewhere that a person might naturally look for important documents can minimize any delays. In my practice, I retain a full copy of the completed documents in my file with a note indicating where my client intended to place the originals when I last spoke with them as a starting point for family members and others who may later need to locate the documents.

JP ThompsonSubmitted photo

__THOMPSON:__ Two words come to mind here for me, personally and professionally: accountability and dependability. It is vital for the estate to have people who are accountable and dependable for the guidelines of the estate. The best way to achieve this is to seek guidance from a licensed estate planning attorney and to inquire about a trust or will.

__TBY: What happens when a person dies intestate (without a will)?__

__CLUBB:__ It depends. If a person dies without a spouse, then his or her estate will likely go to his or her closest relatives. If there is a surviving spouse and no children, the spouse would receive the entirety of the estate. If there are children living, the surviving spouse would receive half of the estate and the rest would be divided among the deceased's children and/or closest relatives. We like to tell our clients that if you die without executing the necessary estate documents, the government has a plan in place to divide your assets.

__HART-LORENZ:__ Missouri law provides a "default" distribution schedule for the assets of those who pass away without a will. Assets are distributed to family members in accordance with how closely related they are, and without reference to the actual relationship between the deceased and the people getting property.

__TBY: What's the best time to start estate planning?__

__ALL EXPERTS AGREE:__ Now!