Here is my Valentine’s Day card idea: “Love is raising and lowering the thermostat seven times in 10 minutes even though the thermostat is two floors down. Love is adding more windshield wiper fluid, two ice scrapers, a snow brush and a shovel to their car before a storm. Love is picking out home décor and furniture you had no idea existed on this planet or any other planet. Love is a bunch of other things as well … Happy Valentine’s Day.”
OK, so this needs some work.
For me, the only romantic gesture that really matters is setting up a comprehensive estate plan.
Whispering sweet nothings, placing a rose on a pillow, or making breakfast are all fine. But do those acts of love compare with a person’s dying legacy that supports and protects you for the rest of your life?
Before you lock in your Valentine’s gift, put the dark chocolate down and think for a minute: What happens if you or your beloved get sick? Will your heart-shaped box allow you to become eligible for Medicaid?
True love happens after the butterflies settle down. This is the part that includes comfort, security, caring, and patience. An estate plan instills a sense of peace and warmth. Your partner loves you and wants to protect you from harm, both physical and financial.
The documents may vary based on your specific circumstances – Wills and Trusts control the flow of resources following your passing; a Power of Attorney allows your loved ones to pick-up the pieces during a health crisis and pay bills and protect assets; Health Care Proxies, Living Wills and MOLST forms concentrate on health care and end-of-life decision-making.
After some deep contemplation, I think I have figured out the perfect Valentine’s Day. It starts with breakfast in bed – French toast lightly covered with powdered sugar and Vermont maple syrup is accompanied by assorted berries and freshly squeezed orange juice resting on a bamboo tray strewn with cut flowers and an estate planning questionnaire. While you chew your toast, you choose your trustee and your beneficiaries.
If it is a snowy February day, after breakfast, you and your beloved strap on some snowshoes and explore a rolling hiking trail. While beholding nature’s majesty, you decide if Cousin Charlie has enough brains to be an alternate Power of Attorney, or if it should just be Uncle Frank. The deer scampering by are no help … They never met Cousin Charlie.
Warming up by a fire, the chill recedes from your bones. Thoughts of fuzzy blankets and long naps come to mind, but you can’t shake the feeling that it’s time to get rid of your timeshare before adding it to your Trust.
Getting dressed for dinner requires you to extend an arm through a tight jacket sleeve. You know what else was tight? Aunt Rose. She was tight with money. She left her children out of her Will and gave her estate assets to her pet squirrel in a Pet Trust. You will not be following in her squirrely footsteps, as your children will share equally in your estate.
After dessert and a romantic nightcap, you drift off to sleep – a Valentine’s Day to remember and an estate plan that is ready for signing!
Alan D. Feller, Esq., is managing partner of The Feller Group, located at 572 Route 6, Suite 103, Mahopac. He can be reached at alandfeller@thefellergroup.com.
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