Estate Planning is Not Just for the Over 50 Crowd
There are moments in life when you become keenly aware of how fragile life is.
Just this week, the story about Natasha Richardson unexpected death from a seemingly minor accident reminded everyone of that. A mom full of life, energy, and utter vitality with a wonderful family. No one would expect her having an accident like this.
Yet life seems to hit us with unexpected surprises....While living in LA, I was made aware of this anytime I was stuck in traffic because of a big accident on a freeway. When I saw ambulances rush to the scene I would wonder about the victims and how a tragedy would affect their families, and of course immediately think about what if that was me. How would my family even find out I was in an accident, would I still be alive when they found out, what if I became paralyzed or incapacitated.
In the past year, I was at the gym one Friday evening, when a young man had just got off an elliptical machine, about two machines over from mine, and then to my shock he started to go down slowly, and seemed to me to be suffering some sort of seizure. After noticing that he seemed to be in a safe spot, I ran to the front desk to get help, after the staff went to aid the person--I called 911. The paramedics came and he went to the hospital that night. And to think he was probably between 25 and 35.
After experiencing these type of events, I would think of my loved ones and call them immediately to ensure that they are OK. Or just to say I love them. Once I became a dad, the desire to protect my daughter, to ensure she would be OK if anything were to happen to me grew exponentially.
Questions as to what would happen if my wife and I were in an accident at the same time, came to me more than once. And answers that I found, as to what would happen if there was no legal planning in place, were shocking to me....Most families with young kids have not done any legal planning to prevent disaster if the unexpected occurs. And for those few who did a will or a living trust, didn't address issues of guardianship particularly important for minor children.
As parents, my wife and I wanted to bring those issues up with local parents and are very pleased about our first workshop taking place on Sunday March 29th at My Gym, Palm Desert.
The Binkley family: myself, Bella, Ana (Photo taken at My Gym)
