When you are young, the last thing on your mind is dying. You probably live each day to its fullest without any concern about what will happen after your death. However, the bleak reality is that death can occur at any time. All it takes is one illness or accident to change everything. This is part of the reason why you should consider estate planning in your 20s.
U.S. News and World Report explains estate planning in your 20s is about protecting yourself now and in the future. It does not matter if you have a lot of money or important assets. Getting the ball rolling on estate planning will make it much easier as you age to keep up with it and ensure you have a plan in place just in case something happens.
You can start your estate plan with just a few documents. Get the basics set up. Then, as the years go by, you can make changes and additions as needed. Having this basic plan in place will make things much easier once you begin to add assets or accounts.
If you have children, it is especially important to have an estate plan. You need to choose a guardian and make your wishes clear on what you want to happen in the event of your death with your children. If you do not have plans in place, your children will end up in state custody, which is probably not what you want to happen. Even if you do not have children right now but plan to in the future, getting an estate plan in place will make it much easier to add them to it when the time comes.
