Reflection: Estate Planning Is Not Just For Boomers

Reflection: Estate Planning Is Not Just For Boomers

By Melinda Gustafson Gervasi

April 29, 2024

Yesterday marked 18 years since I turned in my State of Wisconsin employee badge to focus on building my own estate planning and probate legal practice.  After nearly two decades of running my own legal practice, which is focused on wills, powers of attorney and administering probate, I have learned quite a few things.  The one that impacts me the most and drives my habits outside of the office, is that fact estate planning and probate are not just for the Baby Boomers.  This fact seems to fly over too many people's heads, even that of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Recently I found an email from the State Bar of Wisconsin in my inbox declaring April 16th as National Healthcare Decisions Day, offering the statistic that there are over 55.8 million people aged 65 or older in the United States.  The message goes on to discuss the importance of people documenting their end-of-life wishes as well as empowering loved ones to make health or financial decisions if they are alive but too sick to act.  While important, it fails to see the truth I have learned.  Estate planning decisions are for anyone 18 or older.

Illness, and sometimes death, does not patiently wait for you to complete your retirement paperwork and successfully sign up for Social Security.  Sometimes life, with all its chaos and pain, happens much, much earlier.  There is the 19 year old driving in a pouring rain that hits a curve on a country highway  crashing into a light post and dies on impact.  A 20 year old college Junior taking a prescribed medication that has an unknown side effect, discovered too late, creating a wrongful death settlement payable to grieving parents.  Pancreatic cancer may not wait until after your retirement party, but rather end your life in an efficient and swift 4 months at age 45.

I will stop there, but the list goes on.  The people who had life end far too early.  The same people who nudge me to live now and not wait for my retirement to follow my heart and travel.  Instead, we maneuver my children's school calendar and global pandemics and work with our budget so that we can travel and see a bit of this amazing world we live in.  Now, not once I retire.  

Before hitting the road we make sure our paperwork is up-to-date. Tucked away in our important papers are the key documents that make certain the chaos is minimized if I and or my husband should fall ill or pass away.  Specifically:

• Power of Attorney for Health Care
• Power of Attorney for Finances
• Authorization for Final Disposition
• A Will with a Trust for our minor children
• Letter of Instruction for our Personal Representative and the Trustee
• A one page overview of our assets along with deeds and titles to our property
• The holiday card mailing list from last year for easy access to the names and addresses of people we care about
• A pet trust for our four cats

Image by M. Gustafson Gervasi
Road Trip Memory: 4th of July Fireworks, Manhattan, Summer 2023

No one knows for certain when our time here will end, but we all know none of us are making it out alive.  Make a plan, then go out and live a glorious life.  Note that a blog is not a lawyer and should not be taken as legal advice.  Please consult with an attorney in your home state for advice specific to your situation.  Be well, and thank you for reading.