When Should You Trust Facebook Legal Advice?

Unless the advice is being given by an attorney, or recommending seeking counsel from an attorney, probably never.

This week I saw a Facebook post making the rounds among my friends on the importance of estate planning. It was a pretty good post that had some good advice. However, it didn’t come close to explaining all the options available and some of the pitfalls that may come with some of the advice given.

The majority of the post focused on ensuring all of your assets have “transfer on death” or “pay on death” designations to the beneficiaries you want to pass the assets on to. That’s pretty good advice if all you are worried about is avoiding probate.

But what will the consequences be to your beneficiaries? What if they are receiving assistance for a disability? What if they are not good at managing money? What are the tax consequences that they will have to consider? Do they have problems with creditors or lawsuits? Do you want their inheritance to become marital property with their spouse? If you are leaving property to multiple beneficiaries, do you want them to receive it as tenants in common or as joint tenants with rights of survivorship? What’s the difference between tenants in common and joint tenants with rights of survivorship?

In addition to the above questions, there are other considerations such as: What are your wishes if you should become incapacitated or need long term nursing care in the future? If you have minor children, who would you want to take care of them if something should happen to you? Would you want your minor children to receive their inheritance outright at the age of 18 or have it managed in a trust to provide for their healthcare, education and continued development into adulthood?

I am super glad that the post is being shared many times, bringing awareness to the importance of estate planning. The problem is that the original poster is not an attorney and I fear that people may take this person’s advice and try to draft their own estate planning documents without consulting an attorney first.

I have posted before on the importance of consulting an experienced estate planning and elder law attorney before establishing an estate plan.

https://joplinelderlaw.com/do-i-need-and-attorney-to-do-my-estate-planning/

https://joplinelderlaw.com/you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know/

https://joplinelderlaw.com/if-only-i-had-done-this/

Estate planning strategies and documents created without the advice of an attorney, may cause more problems for your loved ones than they avoid. At Joplin Elder Law, we offer a free one hour initial consultation. We want to ensure that you have all of the information required to make good estate planning decisions.

Call today to schedule your free consultation!