Estate planning is about developing a plan to take care of your dependents after your death and to distribute your assets according to your wishes.

 

What is involved in estate planning?

• Making a list of your assets including how they are owned and their value.
• Thinking about what you want to accomplish
• Deciding what is most important.
• You will probably want to have a will or a trust.

 

The American Bar Association has a web site with answers to questions such as:

What happens if you die without a will? What a will does and does not do. How to execute a will. http://www.abanet.org/rppt/public/intro-to-wills.html

 

Finding a Lawyer

If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer to help you develop an estate plan, you might be able to obtain free legal services. This is called Pro Bono. This site shows where pro bono legal services are available. http://abanet.org/legalservices/probono/directory.html

 

Resources for Estate Planning

Another resource to help you develop an estate plan is Getting Ready for Estate Planning. The site is available at http://www2.ces.purdue.edu/estateplanning/

 

A resource about the communication issues involved in farm transfer is available at this site: http://www2.ces.purdue.edu/farmtransfer.

 

Other resources concerning estate planning are available through the National Ag Risk Library  http://www.agrisk.umn.edu/

  

More information about estate planning is available at the Financial Security in Later Life web site at http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/economics/fsll/fsll.html

Go to the Program Tool Kit in the Educator section of the site and look for estate planning. Some information applies only to the state that developed it. Some information about estate planning is applicable to all states.