Estate planning describes how you want your assets to be managed in the case of an eventuality or incapacitation. Estate planning is usually an uncomfortable topic to discuss. However, one of the ways to set ourselves up against life’s eventuality is to plan.
$49.5B worth of assets remains unclaimed in the US alone, while 4million BTC worth $30m has been lost due to the owners’ demise without beneficiaries. Can you imagine your assets and investment remaining unclaimed because your estate remains unclaimed?
To get started with your estate planning today, here are seven primary estate planning checklists for beginners:
Track and organize all your assets
Most people have their assets spread across digital assets like mutual funds, stocks, NFTs, crypto to traditional assets like real estate, Jewelry, etc. So the first step to estate planning is to ensure that all your assets are tracked. Luckily, Cova is a great tool that helps us to track all our assets in one place, so you can ditch the excel sheets or fragmented assets tracking system, where it’s easy for you to lose track of your assets.
Assign Beneficiaries
Estate planning is nothing without designating beneficiaries or successors for your assets. Beneficiary designations help you to assign beneficiaries without giving them current ownership rights. Assets would only be transferred when the owner is no only available. Setting beneficiaries is usually done for individual banks and brokerage accounts individually. However, I love that I can do this with Cova by assigning beneficiaries only once to my Cova account instead of doing this multiple times across numerous banks and brokerage accounts. With Cova, you set and safely transfer your information to your beneficiaries in case of eventualities.
Pay off your debts
Consistently ensure that your liabilities and debts are in control so that your loved one would not have to take on this responsibility. Setting up the insurance is an excellent way to set your loved one up for success.
Get the last will
A last will is a legal document that communicates a person's final wishes about assets and dependents. Last will also cover how dependents are managed. It may also account for any assets that have not been assigned a beneficiary. However, if you use a tool like Cova for your estate planning, you wouldn’t have to leave any assets unassigned.
Consider a living trust.
A living trust is a legal document, or trust, created during an individual's lifetime. A designated person, the trustee, is given responsibility for managing that individual's assets to benefit the eventual beneficiary. In eventuality, a person you appoint as your successor trustee assures that the property is transferred to those you designate as trust beneficiaries.
Work with an attorney or task advisor.
Consider working with an attorney and probably a tax advisor in your estate planning. Their role would be to guide you by creating essential documents, including a will, power of attorney, and any task issues. Of course, your estate planning decisions are all up to you; however, an attorney or tax advisors help you think through the implication of some of your choices, avoid mistakes, minimize taxes, and adjust your will as things change with time.
Get Covered with Cova
The journey to planning your inheritance starts with tracking your assets with Cova:
- Connect your wallets and cryptocurrencies, get their balances in real-time and easily track their growth with Cova.
- See all your investments in one place. Cova uses industry-leading aggregation technology to give you access to your bank, retirement, and investment accounts.
- Add traditional assets like real estate properties, cars, etc. Add their values and upload vital supporting documents. Cova is fully secured.
- Decide who receives access to your assets and safely transfer this information to them in the event of an unforeseen emergency.
