Bankruptcy gave you a fresh financial start, and now it’s time to build your financial future by working with an experienced estate planning attorney to protect your newfound financial health. Don’t procrastinate your estate planning or dismiss it as a task associated with the rich and famous. Estate planning is the most effective tool you have at your disposal for protecting your family’s financial health now that bankruptcy has provided you with a clean slate.
4 Ways to Build Your Financial Future After Bankruptcy:
- Healthcare Directive: An advance directive or healthcare directive is valid in situations where you cannot make decisions for yourself. Preparing a healthcare directive can ensure your choices regarding medical care are known and that the care you receive is what you would want in the situation. Having a healthcare directive in place benefits you if it becomes necessary, but it can also reduce the suffering of your loved ones during trying times.
- Power of Attorney for Healthcare: A Medical Power of Attorney or Power of Attorney for Healthcare is a document that names a person to have authority to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to do so. Scenarios in which this would become necessary include if you are unconscious or if you were to be declared mentally incapable.
- Will: If you do not already have a will in place, stop procrastinating and get in touch with an estate planning attorney today. A will helps build your financial future after bankruptcy by literally protecting and allocating your assets. Without a will, there is no guarantee that your assets (the financial future you are working so hard to create) will be distributed according to your wishes.
- Trust: When building their financial future after bankruptcy, many filers are drawn to the idea of creating a trust. If you had equity in your home, it was protected in your bankruptcy by using exemptions. Using a trust to ensure that your home can be transferred at your death protects the equity from being depleted by expensive fees, costs, and significant delays in Probate Court. Having learned that there are ways to protect assets in different situations, you are earning real-life knowledge of what to do and what not to do. Choose to use this knowledge to protect your assets with trusts specifically designed to protect the estate for your enjoyment during your lifetime and for your beneficiaries in the future.
If you have recently filed bankruptcy and received your discharge, but you don’t know where to start when building a healthy financial future, we can help. You’re working hard to build a future, and we’ll work hard to help you protect it with Our Everyday People Wealth Planning Program (sometimes called estate planning) designed for each client on a case by case basis. Get in touch with the experienced estate planning attorneys at Dolen, Tucker, Tierney & Abraham today to discuss your personal or family wealth planning.