Estate Planning Considerations Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

November 11, 2020

We need to consider our futures more than ever before. Estate planning helps protect your assets and relieve some of the stress felt by those who will carry out your wishes.

Six months ago, I wrote a blog detailing the ability for New Yorkers to create legally binding estate planning documents with remote notarization and witnessing during the COVID-19 pandemic.  We continue to experience the impacts of COVID-19, so I decided to revisit the importance of proper estate planning now more than ever.

If there is a silver lining to be found within the global pandemic that has consumed our nation for much of 2020, it is in the areas in which it has forced families and individuals to examine their lives and their priorities.  From the benefits of working from home, to the importance of spending more time with family and friends, people are reshaping their priorities in the face of COVID-19.

Another area that should be under the spotlight is estate planning.  Proper estate planning documents – such as a Last Will and Testament, Health Care Proxy, and Power of Attorney – allow you to plan for everything from health care decisions to asset protection and distribution.  A proper estate plan also conveys your wishes to those who will carry out such plans, which helps to put everyone involved at ease.

A recent survey from Caring.com found that nearly half of American adults ages fifty-five and older do not have a basic Will.  The survey noted that since 2017, the number of people who have addressed their estate planning has dropped by twenty-five percent.

We need to consider our futures more than ever before.  From debts and tax liabilities to the difficult decisions that surround carrying out the final wishes of a loved one, estate planning helps protect your assets and relieve some of the stress felt by those who will carry out your wishes.

Our estate planning team has decades of experience building estate plans of all types and complexities.  We work with each client to ensure they walk away with an estate plan that gives them peace of mind and a sense of security for their future and the future of their family.

Attorney Carolyn DeVaughn concentrates her practice in estate planning, estate & trust administration, corporate law, and education law. She can be reached at 716-854-4300 ext. 242 or cdevaughn@gross-shuman.com