Hello my name is Richard Morgan from Morgan and Disalvo. This is a back to the basics, part of our back to the basics newsletter series. The first topic is going to be on the topic of what is estate planning. Estate planning is the power to control the otherwise uncontrollable.

So right now in your life you control every aspect of your life, all your healthcare decisions, all your financial decisions, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else or break the law, you can do whatever you want. But what if you can’t? You become incapacitated which may happen and one day we all pass away. So estate planning allows us to control those events. There’s always a set of laws through the court system that allows the court to control what happens. If you become incapacitated there’s a guardianship of the body, of the person, the conservatorship of the property, and then at death there’s intestacy in the administration process. That whole system exists, it is onerous, it’s expensive, it’s a hassle, and not very pleasant. But under the law of Georgia and other states we’re allowed to control what happens by privatizing the entire system.

So what does that mean? We do estate planning documents on your behalf to make sure that you get to control everything that happens. Who’s in control, who takes care of the kids, what happens with your property.

Richard Morgan, Morgan and Disalvo.