Your net worth is likely more than the total sum of your assets. There are many aspects of everyone’s life that can’t be defined by a tangible asset or that has a specific monetary value. Your family and friendships mean a lot to you and to your family and friends. You are an important part of their life as they are in yours. There is not value that can be placed on this specifically in your estate plan. But there is a way to incorporate this into your estate plan.
I would encourage you to think broader about your “assets” than just those that have a monetary value. There is who you are as a person…and that has a great deal of value in many people’s lives. Most of the time everyone thinks of assets when it comes to estate planning…this is a mistake. There are so many other things to consider when you put together your estate plan. And when you pass away, these can often times have more value than your assets when you are no longer in someone’s life. So how does all this get accounted for in estate planning?
You cannot give away your capacity to love after death. However, that does not mean your other value has to be left out of your estate plan completely. You can use your estate plan for planned charitable giving, as the Nashua Telegraph discusses in "Planning to give and leaving a lasting legacy."
Planned giving is simply making provisions in your estate plan that a certain amount of money or a percentage of your estate's assets should be given to one or more charities. It goes beyond just giving Uncle Al and Aunt Sally more things…it is designed to give to others whose lives you want to impact and where you feel your estate can help. And the misconception you have to have a lot of money to do this is false…anyone with any estate can do planned giving.
The goal is to help others that need the help, even if they aren’t related to you. One example that illustrates this point is when a couple I was working with wanted to give away their assets. Fortunately, their family and immediate relatives were doing just fine and didn’t need any additional income or any assets beyond the family heirlooms. Because of this situation, they decided to put together a planned giving component in their estate plan and give the majority of their estate away to others less fortunate in several charities they supported.
There are several different ways you can make charitable donations a part of your estate. Some are as simple as a few lines written into a will and others are for more complicated, including setting up special trusts for the purpose. Regardless of which way best suits you and your situation, consult with an estate planning attorney to get some detailed direction on how you can make this happen easily within your current estate plan. With planned giving you not only leave assets to others, you leave a legacy!