John Zenir - August 2020

John Zenir - August 2020

The Law Office of John M. Zenir

JMZEsq.com 516-746-0180

August 2020

An Estate Plan Can Protect the Things Most Important to You

I graduated from high school quite a long time ago— I’m not afraid to admit that it was in 1965, to be exact. Decades ago, it seems to me that high schools operated a little differently than today. I recall guys on the school newspaper being friends with football players and track stars being friends with members of the debate team. Maybe my school was lucky, but “cliques”didn’t seem to be a thing we cared about. Our variety of interests made us fascinated by one another and brought us close together. All these decades later, there are still nearly 100 of us who stay in frequent touch via an ongoing and endlessly entertaining email chain. Twice a year, about 50 of us gather in person to reminisce about the good ol’ days and share stories about what a great time we all had together. We each had our different roles in that school, but we all shared the same positive sentiments about it. When we run out of memories to reminisce about, we often turn to today’s events and thoughts of the modern age. Inevitably, the conversation often manages to wind into the realm of estate planning, which I’ll chalk up to our age. Everyone in our group comes from different backgrounds and has different opinions on just about everything in life, but the one thing we always manage to agree upon after our combined years of experience and wisdom is that having an estate plan is essential. I always tell my clients (and sometimes my friends, when they ask) to have four essential estate elements in place: a trust for your assets, a power of attorney, a living will, and a health care proxy. A trust is a great way to leave assets to your loved ones without causing headaches during the process. Assets in a trust can bypass probate, your heirs can avoid the expenses of going to court for the estate, and they can

preserving those things in life that you care most about: the things you’ve come to know and love about others, as well as about yourself. To some degree, we’re all likely a little worried about what our futures hold, but creating these plans can ease some of those concerns. Our firm is here to help whether you decide you’re ready to put together your own estate plan or you just need a little reprieve and want to reminisce about days past.

continue to control the property throughout their lifetime. A trust allows you to determine exactly how your assets will be distributed to loved ones and will make the process much easier than a simple will can. Power of attorney, a living will, and a health care proxy all go hand in hand and are especially essential during a time when sickness is largely on a lot of people’s minds. If you end up in a physical state that keeps you from being able to make important legal or medical decisions for yourself —whether it’s due to injury or illness — these three documents ensure that you and your assets are taken care of exactly as you’d want them to be while you’re still alive. They give instruction for personal, legal, and health care decisions you are unable to make yourself. All four of these documents do very different things but are equally important to have at the very base of your estate plan. They’re about

-John M. Zenir

Joke of the Month

The doctor told Phil he had good news and bad news: “Good news is you have 48 hours to live. Bad news is I should have told you on Tuesday.”

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THE LASTING IMPACT OF THE DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL LEGAL IMPLICATIONS WE CAN STILL SEE TODAY

the U.S. justice system. However, protecting >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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