Summer 2010 TREE Fund Report: The First Step Toward a Plan for Planned Giving
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By Kenneth J. DeVries, Esq.
It’s a prudent rule of thumb to review your estate plan every 3-5 years to ensure that it is up to date in terms of beneficiaries, designations and asset inclusion. Just as the intent and agenda of Congress change, so do the circumstances, priorities or individuals you may wish to provide for in your estate. Estate planning is essential to ensure that people are a priority in the post death planning. The old cliché is still appropriate, “it’s all about people, planning and property.”
Contact an estate planning professional in your home community and state, and include your philanthropic interests and passions in the planning process. For some things in life procrastination may have no significant consequences. However, procrastination in matters of estate planning can have very long term consequences for loved ones and other people and institutions that you care most about during life.
Author: Kenneth J. DeVries, Esq. is an attorney licensed in Michigan and Illinois. He is a volunteer member of the TREE Fund’s planned giving committee.