In the minds of most people estate planning is about who gets your stuff when you die. This misconception makes people overlook some of the most important planning that they need to do.

Estate planning also involves life planning: controlling and protecting your property while you are alive, being ready in case long-term disability strikes you or your spouse during your lifetimes, and taking the necessary steps now so that things will work out the way you intended after you are gone. Comprehensive, effective estate planning requires not just getting the money ready for the kids, but getting the kids ready for the money as well. That kind of planning can’t begin after you are gone.

Estate planning also is concerned with how you will be remembered long after your death. Your legacy does not depend on how much money you left to others in a will.

To be effective, estate planning must be comprehensive, that is, it must integrate life and legacy. And it begins with some basic education about what estate planning is, and is not. Without it, people will continue to make the same mistakes, and their plans will not work. That basic education is offered in a free, informative, and highly interactive class — Estate Planning 101. To register, simply click Schedule a Class on the Home Page.