There are many situations and decisions we face in life where the better choice to make is the harder choice. We see it in simple ways like taking care of our health; getting the workout in rather than having a glass of wine (or at least before!) or choosing the healthier alternative on the menu. It is easier to make a choice based on immediate gratification instead of waiting for a better pay off later.
When we look to more complex decisions, the choice can get even more difficult. Although the stakes or long term payoff may be substantial, the cost of making the hard choice can be high. Creating and maintaining a well thought out estate plan certainly fits into this category. The effort and the dedication of resources (time and money) can be a deterrent for doing the planning we know is required in our estate.
Perhaps one of the greatest inhibitors we face in making any decision is not being connected to the “why” behind the “what”. If you didn’t understand why it was important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, would you make the choices necessary to achieve that? Probably not. But being connected to all the ways that being healthy can create a better life makes those hard choices easier in the moment.
We see this magnified when it comes to estate planning. Why is it important to you to have appropriate insurance plans in place or have updated wills and living wills? This answer is different, very different, for everyone. The”why” in long term estate planning lies in your desire for what your legacy will be. Spending the time to define how you want to be remembered or what your mark on society will be will likely result in a very powerful “why” for your planning. For instance:
Realizing that you in fact have a very specific desire of where the funds of your estate should be allocated will make the effort required to create your will (or other planning tools such as a family trust) a lot easier (versus the current reality with no will of having the outcome of your estate decided by a court).
Realizing that you would like to leave a long and lasting gift to a charity whose work is close to your heart as a part of your legacy will make funding an insurance policy that will create that gift a lot easier.
Realizing that preserving your life’s work and not having your estate depleted after you’re gone is really important to you makes putting together the appropriate insurance and estate plan a lot easier.
As planners, we can do good work advising you on your plan by looking at the hard facts and the numbers. But where we can create really great work with our clients is when we spend time defining the “why” behind their “what”. It’s not always easy work, and the answers aren’t always super clear. But the decisions you make today can, and will, be ever changing as you move through life. The important part is just to start.