Estate planning is one of the few legal actions that involves everyone, at some point in their lives. Not everyone will be in a life-altering auto accident, arrested, or even married and divorced, but almost everyone will wind up passing their legacy on to the next. Despite this, approximately 60% of people pass away with no form of planning - living trust, power of attorney, a will - nothing. This can cause chaos in even the most amicable families, making an already difficult time worse. ​
Facing the Future
It is perfectly normal to not wish to think about your own end. Unfortunately, death can not be ignored until it goes away. Discomfort makes it easy to procrastinate. It can be easier to dismiss the concept when you are in good health, or do not have an estate so large that you believe people may fight over it. Having an estate plan isn’t just for your benefit. It can help instruct the people who will be remaining after you are unable to express your wishes.
Estate Planning - More Than “Who Gets What?”
When people think of planning for this part of life, they often think of just the will. The focus of many media is the will of the deceased, as it declares which member of the family gets what items. But there is so much more to an estate plan than just who is going to get what part of the property.
What’s in Will?
The Will is the document that details the last will and testament of the deceased. It covers who will be receiving what portion of what is left behind. Though commonly immediate family, there are people who may wish to leave estate to a non-relative. Most common law decides that immediate family is the proper heir, meaning that non-relatives would not be entitled to any of the estate unless otherwise specified in a Will. Wills can also include care instructions for the body, such as burial versus cremation.
Power of Attorney
A Power of Attorney can grant another person the authority to make select decisions on your behalf in your absence. They are often specific in nature, such as a financial power of attorney or health care power of attorney. With an estate plan, you can designate who will get to make decisions on your behalf should a situation arise where you are not present to do so. Planning can even go as far as to detail what a preferred decision would be in certain “what if” scenarios.  Note - a Power of Attorney is not a substitute for guardianship should someone be declared incapable of making decisions rather than just temporarily unavailable to make a decision.
The Living Trust
A living trust is an arrangement that can be set up for the purpose of placing your valuables into a trust for protection so that upon your death those items can be easily transferred to an heir. Living trusts are used to bypass probate, making the disbursement much faster and simpler. Since it is not put through probate, the terms are kept private versus made public. It also keeps the courts from making any decisions on behalf of the deceased.  This is a very popular document for Estate Planning.
Uncertainty During the pandemic
2020 has been a difficult year for many. It has rushed the timeline for some to face this matter. Even for those who have not had to deal with this, it puts the awareness there. COVID-19 has disrupted many lives. It has induced depression in many due to feelings of helplessness. While an estate plan can not treat a virus, it can help create feelings of being in control due to the actual taking of control over an uncertainty. 
Don’t let the state decide what happens to your property and family. Speak with someone about how to protect your loved ones, now.
 

The biblical  refugee family didn't speak a word of English as they crossed the border. Perhaps the hot sun beat down on their brown skin as they traveled. Maybe they had to stop for water with the rest of their caravan. The unwed pregnant woman, wearing a head covering similar to a hijab, rode on the donkey. Her betrothed, who was not her baby's father, walked alongside her. 
 The Christmas Immigration Story 
A lot of factors influence how we think and talk about other people. Maybe if these dark-skinned, foreign-language-speaking immigrants had crossed the border from Mexico into the US in 2020, we might have talked about them differently. Americans might have shrugged as President Trump called them names like "criminals" and "rapists." We might have grumbled about these immigrants taking our jobs if the man had dared to mention his carpentry business. 

When the young woman gave birth in a crowded room behind a chain-link fence, evangelical Christians might have added a caveat to their sympathy: "I feel bad for her, but they should have come here legally." And when an ICE agent ripped baby Jesus out of his mother's arms, many of us might have turned the other way. 
But this immigration story is different. This family of immigrants didn't cross the border between Mexico and the United States, and they didn't make their journey in 2020. So instead of telling them to go back to where they came from, we put up Nativity scenes every December in their honor. 
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Was Jesus an Illegal Immigrant? 
"Wait a minute!" savvy Bible readers might say at this point. "That's not an immigration story! Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because they were required to do it! And they were going back to Joseph's hometown! They weren't illegal immigrants!" 
That's true, but what a lot of people don't remember is what happened afterward. The Holy Family's travels weren't over just yet. Sometime after Jesus's birth, a group of Zoroastrian priests brought Jesus lavish gifts and warned his parents about a murderous ruler. To protect their child, Mary and Joseph packed up their things and crossed another border -- into Egypt this time, which was about 40 miles away from their home. 

So, did that border crossing make Jesus an illegal immigrant? The answer is still no. Egypt, like Nazareth, was still under Roman rule at the time, and even if it wasn't, crossing borders worked differently in those days. There certainly weren't any ICE agents ready to pull children away from their mothers, at the very least. 
No, Jesus and his family weren't illegal immigrants, and neither are the asylum-seekers of today. Seeking asylum as a refugee is completely legal, and asylum-seekers are not required to announce their presence in advance. After all, if you're fleeing civil war, religious persecution, or like Jesus's family, a murderous ruler, you don't always have the time or the means to call ahead for reservations; You just want to get your child out safely. 
What Does Jesus Look Like in 2020? Then again, what if the borders of Jesus's time looked like borders in 2020, with "big, beautiful walls" and gun-toting border patrol agents? Would they have crossed those borders anyway, even if laws had been rewritten to make that option "illegal?" They may not have had a choice, caught between a murderous ruler on one side and an ICE agent on the other. 

When your child's life is in the balance, as so many of today's asylum-seekers know, you'll face any barrier if it means keeping them safe, whether or not the story results in a Nativity display.