As we move through our lives, it is easy to focus on keeping our own affairs in order and develop tunnel vision around our own experiences. For many people, sitting down to create their estate plan is one of the first times they’ve truly considered whom they want to receive their property after they pass away and what kind of impact they hope to leave.
Estate planning is a powerful tool anyone can use to express their values and build up the community around them. If you have yet to create your own estate plan, you may find that you can accomplish much more than expected with high-quality legal tools and guidance. With some care and creativity, the possibilities are endless.
Giving back to meaningful institutions and causes
For many of us, the lives we enjoy in our middle and later years simply would not be possible without the help of educational and community institutions and the people who serve in them. Greg Morris, founding attorney at Morris Estate Planning, has long understood the debt of gratitude he owes to several such institutions, leading him to focus on charitable estate planning throughout his career. Charitable planning incorporates giving to various institutions and charitable organizations into an estate plan, allowing individuals to make the most of their resources and live out their values through giving.
Morris has devoted many years to practicing charitable planning, and even contributed to legal literature on the matter, ensuring that estate planning professionals in Nevada have the tools that they need to help others establish their own legacies of giving. This career-long commitment to the broader community benefits of estate planning lead the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to recognize Morris as their 2019 College of Liberal Arts Alumnus of the Year.
As you craft and revise your estate plan, it is important to consider the opportunities that benefited you in your own journey. You may recognize an institution or cause that could use your giving to create a future where others experience similar opportunities and reinforce your values.
Estate planning for a legacy of impact
Thoughtful estate planning offers us tools we can use to create the impact we wish to leave behind. Not only does a strong estate plan use the strength of the law to protect the individual rights of its creator, it also provides a place where we can bind our own lives to the lives of others. Charitable planning not only establishes the legacy you wish to leave behind, it celebrates the people and institutions building the world you want for your loved ones.