Over the weekend, I watched an interesting story on the news about the storing of cord blood. The story really had nothing to do with estate planning. Actually, it talked about how some private storage companies for cord blood prey on new parents. I don’t know if this is true or not, although my wife and I saved cord blood when our daughters were born. The chance that this may help them in the future was worth the expense of it.
This story reminded me as an estate planning attorney that cord blood is a valuable asset that should be considered in estate planning arrangements. Same could be said for frozen embryos.
With that in mind, upon your death, the following issues should be considered as a part of your planning:
- Be sure to list where your cord blood is presently stored and its annual cost for storage;
- Be sure to keep that list along with your asset listing so that your family will know that you are maintaining cord blood for potential future use;
- If you wish to leave your cord blood to anyone in particular, you can do so using a separate writing as a part of your estate planning. Alternatively, you could include a directive in your Florida Will or Florida Revocable Trust which states who will receive those items.
Of course, given the importance of cord blood, stem cells and the like, it can be much more worthwhile than any amount of money that you could leave to your family!
Tags: Attorney, Clearwater, Estate Planning, Family Estate Plan, gifting, Joshua T. Keleske, Last Will, Last Will & Testament, Lawyer, Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Tampa
