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We make New Year's resolutions and start working out or keeping a cleaner house or eating better.
January also tends to be a month when many children are born.
Mothers who plan to give birth when the weather is not as hot will schedule their pregnancies so that their babies are born in either December or January.
January is a time for lifestyle additions and subtractions.
Unfortunately for some, one of those subtractions tends to be marriage.
Many unhappy couples wait until after the holidays to get divorced and see January as a time to end a troubled relationship and start fresh.
Whether adding a child or subtracting a spouse, one of the most important resolutions to keep each New Year is the one to draft or review your estate plan.
If you are married and have a new child, you must protect that child by announcing its guardian in the case that something should happen to you and your spouse.
If you are a single parent, this need is even more pressing.
If you don't select a guardian for your child, there will be a lengthy and expensive process to determine the guardianship which may result in your child being raised by someone less than ideal or even becoming a ward of the state.
Beyond choosing a guardian for your child, you should have a trust in place to protect your children from probate and limit their exposure to any estate tax liability.
You should also add contingent trusts to your estate plan if you are leaving money to a minor child.
Distributing assets to a child outside of a trust is very dangerous and can lead to a total loss of assets and a child that is taken advantage of.
By leaving your assets to your children in trust, you assure that the assets are protected from any predators and from the whims of an immature child who is not accustomed to handling large sums of money.
If you are a single parent of a minor child, the danger is even greater.
If you are single due to the death of a prior spouse, distributing money and assets directly to a minor child without the protection of a trust could lead to a lengthy legal battle for custody of the children, since the person that is granted custody of your child will also be granted custody of all of your child's assets, including everything you just left them.
Along that same line, if you are a single parent with a living ex-spouse, you will not be able to prevent your ex-spouse from gaining custody of their son or daughter.
However, you are able to prevent your ex-spouse from controlling your assets.
When I ask my single parent clients if they want to leave all of their assets to their ex-spouse, the answer is usually "No.
" However, without a trust in place to distribute assets and then protect those assets for your children, that is exactly what is going to happen.
If you or anyone you know is the parent of a minor child, whether single or divorced, a living trust is an absolute necessity.
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