Should Estate Planning be a Part of Your Hurricane Preparation Plan?
Below is a lightly edited transcription of the video:
Should Estate Planning be a Part of Your Hurricane Preparation Plan?
Hi, this is Addie Prewitt. Coming to you live from my home office.
On Friday afternoon, my sister called and said, there are two hurricanes in the Gulf. What should we do? And I thought to myself, Well, luckily, I went to Costco this week, so I should be good on food. And then I started thinking, should estate planning be a part of your hurricane preparation plan? And I think the answer to that is yes. So in this video, I'm going to give you some tips and suggestions and hope that everyone is staying safe during these hurricanes.
Just a little disclaimer here. This is for informational purposes only. I'm not providing any legal advice any particular person and this is not create an attorney client relationship with you. So all that being said, let's dive right in.
If you've already done estate planning documents, the first thing to think about is to make sure you know where they are. You know, you do them you put them in a cabinet somewhere not really sure. So make sure you locate them.
The next thing is to make sure they're in a fireproof, waterproof safe if they're kept at home, or a lot of people, keep them in a safety deposit box. If you are going the safety deposit box route, make sure your family knows are there, make sure your family can access the documents if they ever needed to.
Also, I would encourage you to have copies of them. Preferably a digital copy that you could keep somewhere in the cloud and access from anywhere so you don't need to, to have a particular device to access it.
And then the next thing is if you haven't done any estate planning, what can you do? Well, Louisiana does allow for handwritten will. Is this the best case scenario? No. But is it something? Yes. Is it legally valid and binding? Yes.
So the requirements for a valid handwritten will in Louisiana are that it has to be entirely written, dated and signed in the handwriting of the testator. The testator is a person who's making the will.
So (for illustration) I wrote down this will for Minnie Mouse as you can see. It is entirely on a blank piece of paper. There's nothing else on it but the writing. At the top I put last will and testament.
And then I started with: On this day April 25 2020. I'm Minnie Mouse do hereby declare this to be my last will and testament and revoke any and all previous last wills and testaments. I live at 1234 City Park Drive New Orleans, Louisiana.
The next paragraph says, When I die, I leave all of my property to my spouse, Mickey Mouse. If my spouse Mickey Mouse dies before me, I leave all of my practice property equally to my three children, Huey mouse, Louie mouse and females.
The next paragraph says I appoint Mickey Mouse to be the executor of my estate. If he's unable to serve I appoint Donald Duck as executor. And the final paragraph says I appoint Daisy Duck to be tutor of my minor children. If Daisy Duke desirable to serve as tutor I appoint Goofy, and it's signed at the bottom Minnie Mouse.
So once again, is this the best case scenario? No, but it is a legally valid and binding will.
So just wanted to get that information out to you guys. I hope everyone is staying safe and thanks for taking a listen