If you are single and never married, or single because you are divorced, you need an estate plan.
As a single person, you are legally required to make your own personal, financial, and healthcare decisions. If you are legally incapacitated due to an illness or injury, who would make those decisions for you?
Unless you legally appoint someone to make those decisions, the probate court will appoint someone (not necessarily the person you would have appointed) to make those decisions for you at a great expense.
Even if you are not legally disabled, without a properly drawn estate plan at your death, your assets will pass under a plan that the State of Missouri makes for you and not one you would have made if you had an estate plan in place.
If you are single because you are divorced, you have even more reasons to have a properly drawn estate plan. You may have minor children who need to have a guardian appointed for them in the event of your and your ex-spouse's deaths, and you may want to provide for your children when you are gone. Without a properly drawn estate plan, those needs cannot be accomplished, resulting in extreme emotional and financial hardship for your children.
Finally, as a single person, you do not have the same asset protection that ownership of assets with a spouse provides. Your assets (with only a very limited number of exceptions) are completely unprotected from lawsuits or other creditor claims. A properly drawn estate plan can provide a single person with asset protection for their hard-earned financial and real estate assets.
There are a variety of ways to establish a properly drawn estate plan for a single person. Give us a call at (314) 966-7766 to discuss the ways that best suit your needs.