This may be the biggest myth about estate planning

There are many different myths about estate planning, and it’s important for people to sort this out before they get started. You don’t want to make any avoidable mistakes simply because you got bad advice from someone else, who may have meant well when they gave it to you.

But there is one myth that is repeated perhaps more than any other, and it is very detrimental because it keeps people from making an estate plan at all. This can leave their family without any guidance when it is needed most.

You’re too young

The myth, quite simply, is that someone is too young to do estate planning. They just think that it’s not necessary at their age and that it is not important yet, so they procrastinate it and put it off for another day or another year.

The main problem with this is that the unpredictability of life means you never really have an accurate picture of when your family may need an estate plan. This leads to a lot of people who pass away before they assumed they would, and their family finds out that they never got around to the planning that they had been putting off for so long.

But another thing to consider is simply that this myth ignores a lot of the different estate planning tools that you can use. It assumes that you are simply making end-of-life medical decisions or dividing up your life savings.

But what if you’re actually a parent and you want to pick a guardian for your child? Or what if you have specific medical needs and you want to make sure they’re met if you’re incapacitated? You can do the first by setting up a guardianship in your estate plan, and you can do the second by using a medical power of attorney. Both of these documents are still very valuable in your situation, regardless of your age – and those are merely two examples.

Getting the process started

Now that you can see why it’s important to do your estate planning as soon as you can, take the time to get acquainted with the steps you’ll need to take to get that plan in place.