Hey friends, it’s me. Randy the BRN’s financial spokesman today. I want to talk with you a little bit about planning as a relates to your estate, assets, and most importantly, your children. We may be asking questions, like, “Do I even have a plan? or “Do I really need a plan?” Well, the answer to these questions is: if you have not made your own plan, be assured, a plan has already been created for you.
Most of us are so busy with the day-to-day that we forget to think about the future. The reality is that we all will face death. Our default is to not think about this and put it off until we’re old, but the Bible tells us that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. It’s important to be educated about the plan that is automatically put in place for us and what options we have to change that plan to match what is most meaningful to us.
What is that plan?
Well, everyone already has a plan for people’s children and possessions. If you don’t create a different plan of your own, the state decides where your possessions go and who gains custody of your minor children. Listen closely, I want to make sure you understand that the default system is set by the state and may present difficulties for your family after you are gone. But this doesn’t have to be the case, you are free to craft your own last will communicating your own desires.
The reality is you have three options for where your resources can go. When you die, you can leave them to the government, you can leave them to your children and heirs. You can leave them to a ministry of your choice. Which one of these would you eliminate?
I’ll leave that question for you to answer yourself but know this: when you do proper planning and minimize what goes to the government, you often have the opportunity to leave more to your heirs and more to the ministries you care about. In other words, with proper planning, you can sometimes redirect money that would have otherwise gone to taxes and put that towards ministry instead.
So I want to make sure you understand that you do have a choice. If you choose to do nothing, that’s still a choice. Doing nothing means allowing the government to decide where everything goes.
So if you choose to take action, we have a tool to help you. This free tool is provided by the BRN and can be found at brnunited.org/legacy. If you find yourself in the position of not having an end-of-life plan, please take the time for the benefit of yourself, your family, your heirs, and the ministries you support, to create a plan for your resources and your family. May the Lord lead you in your next step. Thank you for your time today. And if you have any questions about this tool, please reach out to our Help Desk.
Randy signing off!
