Everyone gets older, and no matter how hard you try, there will come a day when you need to plan for your estate and end of life wishes. It can be hard to approach this topic, but it’s important to do so. Women who want to plan their estates should consider approaching it slightly differently. Women are not the same as men physically and have some different factors to consider in their estates. For instance, women tend to outlive men, so it’s important to plan for additional years of life that men may not account for in their plans.
Women, on average, live 4.9 years longer than men. With a longer life, you need to consider ways to make your assets last longer. Women may also have challenges if they have short work histories; they may not have as much saved as male counterparts and need to account for the lower savings they’ll have in retirement. Organizing an estate plan can make it easier to see how much money a woman has and how to stretch those assets to last a lifetime and beyond.
Every woman should have basic estate planning documents such as a living will, a will and a durable power of attorney for health care purposes. Trusts and charitable gifting information may also be included if you plan to pass down assets to beneficiaries or a charity.
Make sure each document lines up. Each one should have your name exactly the same. This helps remove any concerns that certain documents may not belong to your estate plan in the future. Our website has more information on why your estate plan matters.
