Estate Planning
Mayor Faber (left) talks to Habitat homeowner Amy (right) and signs a golden shovel at a groundbreaking ceremony.
Mayor Faber (right) attends a Habitat groundbreaking ceremony with Jim Golden, Habitat’s Board President (left).
An interview with David Faber about Estate Planning
October 2022
We had the opportunity to talk with Port Townsend Mayor and Habitat volunteer, David Faber about estate planning. As a practicing attorney in the area, David helps clients navigate such legal documents as wills, trusts, power of attorney, and real estate property transactions.
In our discussion with Mayor Faber, he provided some helpful recommendations about planning an estate.
Question: Why is estate planning important?
Answer: “Estate planning” is one of the most commonly misunderstood concepts. It is not just something valuable to people with lots of money or complicated assets/investments. Instead, the purpose of estate planning, in simple terms, tends to be two-fold:
(1) To ensure you are empowering the correct people in your world to assist you with medical or financial decision-making and tasks (such as routine doctor appointments or filing your taxes) if you ever became unable to manage those things yourself, which is extremely important if you have things like a mortgage, a need to file tax returns, or you don’t want to end up sequestered in a hospital bed without any family/friends being able to visit or help advocate for you; and
(2) to ensure that your assets, including your home and any money or tangible personal property you own are distributed to the correct people, be they children, friends, nieces/nephews, and/or nonprofit organizations, and that these assets are distributed in the manner that you would prefer (such as a trust for a grandchild or giving your home to one specific child so that they will have a place to live).
Question: What are your top three tips for estate planning?
Answer:
(1) Make sure you have a clearly-drafted & properly executed Will and Powers of Attorney (which collectively address the two purposes of estate planning I mentioned above) so as to avoid any familial conflicts or unintended consequences.
(2) Consider having a list of people, by order of preference, who you would trust to serve as your Power of Attorney (to make medical or financial decisions) so that you aren’t left without a person to rely on if the first person you chose has died or is unwilling to serve as your Power of Attorney at any point in the future when you might need someone to act on your behalf.
(3) Lastly, and this one is frequently hard when it comes to families with multiple children and limited assets: I recommend not trying to leave one home to multiple children. Such an arrangement frequently ends in family fighting and might ultimately destroy relationships, particularly when one child/family member occupies the home and the other(s) are unable to receive any benefit from the inheritance you have left them. Instead, I usually advise parents to either direct that if a child wants the home they will buy out their sibling(s) or that the home be sold so that children aren’t put into a position where they may feel taken advantage of by one-another. Letting children separate assets from one another allows them to decide how much they want their future relationships to work. The “dead hand of control”, as those in my field call it, can drive families apart when it tries to force them together.
If you are in need of estate planning, you can contact David Faber at Faber Feinson PLLC by phone at (360) 379-4110. Or learn more at his company’s website. Mayor Faber provides pro bono (free) estate planning counsel to all Habitat EJC homeowners.
Have questions about adding Habitat to your will? Please call our Director of Engagement at 360-379-2827 or email give@habitatejc.org.