Released: November 02, 2007

Rest easier with estate planning

Source: Kathy Kristof, Morning Call (Free Registration)

It wasn’t until after Eleanor Barkelew got married a second time that she grappled with estate planning. She and her husband each had a child from a previous marriage, and the couple didn’t want to create hassles for the family after they died.

‘’If the parents involved don’t make the decisions about how things are going to go, it leaves it to the children to battle things out,’’ Barkelew said. ‘’We didn’t want that to happen.’’

About 70 percent of Americans die without a will or other estate plan, experts say, even though most people say they’d like to save their heirs the time, taxes and costs that can add up when no estate planning has been done. Barkelew, 69, will tell you why: People don’t like the subject matter.

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