by Jet Villamor
I started my career in the life insurance industry as a regional trainer of Insular Life. From the moment I got my formal initiation into the world of life insurance, I had always been fascinated with the subject of estate planning. Fifteen years and countless training programs attended after, I am still studying the subject and I want to share with you some of the things that might just interest you.
This subject is a lot more complicated than it sounds. I am no lawyer or a master of this subject but it is my ardent desire to be able to open up some minds on this subject. I know a lot of people who are not comfortable with the subject as it connotes dying, as they think that estate planning is simply about writing a last will and testament, morbid as it may be, this is practically one of the most common misconceptions about estate planning. Another common misunderstanding about estate planning is that it is only for the rich. But, of course, it’s for everybody.
Allow me to start by defining ESTATE PLANNING. “It is the detailed and systematic study of the personal and financial affairs of a person to help him adopt and carry out a plan, for the disposition of his properties and earnings that can give the estate owner and his family maximum benefit and satisfaction.” (“Thy Will Be Done” by Atty. Angelo M. Cabrera)
An all too familiar dictum, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” may just also be true in the case of estate planning. Others will mistake one objective of estate planning as estate planning itself but it is not. Estate planning is the sum total of all its objectives and not just answering and dealing with one objective.
Let me then clarify this early that estate planning has three (3) major objectives. Estate planning involves creation, conservation and distribution.
Practically all of us have been working. We are working because we all have dreams that we want to realize. If I were to capsulize every person’s dream it may be, one way or another like this, “I want to have a better future for myself and my family.” And so based on this premise, we work hard and accumulate wealth.
As we’ve succeeded in our primary objective of living our dreams and that of being able to provide for our family, our next desire will now be that of passing on our life’s cherished positions, our accumulated wealth to our children so we will be immortalized in their memories for as long as they live. In doing this their future will be forever secure. The next thing that we want to do seamlessly should be that of equitably dividing our wealth among all of our loved ones according to our own whims and caprices.
The end objective of an estate planning is to provide “maximum benefit and satisfaction to the estate owner and his family.” (A.M. Cabrera, “The Will be Done”)
Estate Planning should not only be resorted to when the time is “near” or when the “time is coming” – If you were to ask me, when the best time to start planning for an estate? The best time should always be NOW!
You should never delay because tomorrow might just be too late. In fact, you must have already thought of it yesterday so that today is for you to do something about it already. Act now and consult your lawyer, CPA and better still a trusted life insurance agent.
In my next articles I will be sharing with you some horror stories when estate planning is neglected.
(for questions, comments, suggestions and reactions email @ jvvillamor@insular.com.ph)
