“At the American Heart Association, like many other organizations, we are seeing an uptick in estate planning,” writes Carl A. Wayne, JD. “COVID-19 has caused many people to realize life can change on a dime, and they need to be prepared,” Wayne explains.
“Clients are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress related to changes in health, the economy, and the political landscape in the United States,” Jonathan Fox and Suzanne Barthomae observe in Financial Planning Preview. Financial planners play a vital role in helping families adjust to a new normal, the authors note.
Even now, with the pandemic appearing to be on the wane, there’s been a surge of clients feeling the need to review and update their estate planning documents, observes Cara Chittenden of Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates. “Adjusting to a new normal” is very much a driver of clients’ increased need for a review of estate planning. With their children now grown, clients realize, those guardianship arrangements they’d put in place a quarter century ago no longer apply. And, with retirement a closer prospect or perhaps even imminent, new planninhg and insurance decisions need to be made.https://www.rgeyerlaw.com/estate-planning/
Fidelity Charitable conducted a survey to check in on the influence of the pandemic on donors’ attitudes toward giving. Findings showed that most donors had increased their gifts during COVID, with many intending to increase their charitable giving going forward. While the need to develop cures for disease accounted for a large part of the interest, local community needs and combating hunger commanded significant interest as well.
At Geyer Law, the “second-time-around” estate planning process revealed a similar interest in charitable planning, Chittenden observes. While there is obviously heightened interest in planning for their own future medical care needs, clients are giving more thought to “controlling their legacies”,
Pandemic or no, there will always be challenges, fears, and family dynamics that come into play with legal issues.” Still, “second time around” planning offers Indiana residents, business owners, and families the chance to re-think their preferences, fine-tune their documents and gain a greater sense of control,
– by Ronnie of the Rebecca W. Geyer & Associates blog team
