If the unexpected happens to you, having a plan will help life unfold more smoothly for you or your heirs. That’s where Thrivent Financial Bank’s trust and investment management services department comes in.

Setting up a will is an important first step in planning. If you should die without a will in place, generally the laws in the state in which you live determine how your estate will be handled, says Connie Posselt, trust marketing coordinator for Thrivent Financial Bank’s trust and investment services. Maybe the court will designate a relative you wouldn’t have chosen to raise your 6-month-old child, or maybe the job of managing your 401(k) and life insurance will go to an inexperienced money manager.

This kind of situation easily can be avoided with a little advanced planning, Posselt says. Many Thrivent Financial members choose to designate Thrivent Financial Bank as the trustee of a trust created through their will to help ensure that their assets are handled properly when they are gone.

For more advanced estate planning, you may need to establish a trust during your life to distribute and manage your assets after your death. A trust is simply a legal arrangement, established in writing, to provide for the management of trust assets during life and the disposition of trust assets after your death. Depending on the complexity of your estate, a trust can take very different forms.

“The main goal of any trust is to ensure that your assets are handled the way you deem fit, during your lifetime and at your death,” Posselt says. Besides passing estate assets to heirs or beneficiaries, trusts also can manage property for a surviving spouse or heir, contribute to charity or provide for the livelihood of individuals with disabilities.

While Thrivent Financial Bank is not authorized to draft estate-planning documents such as will or trust agreements, it can serve as trustee or successor trustee of your trust. “Really think about who you want to manage your assets,” Posselt advises. “If you designate a relative for that role, you have to consider their experience level and the time that they have available to meet the responsibilities of the position of trustee.” The benefit of designating an organization such as Thrivent Financial Bank to handle your affairs, says Posselt, is peace of mind. “If you name Thrivent Financial Bank, you’ll know that you have placed your trust in an institution that has all of the tools necessary to carry out your plan for your loved ones.”

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Bank and trust services offered through Thrivent Financial Bank, 2000 E. Milestone Dr., Appleton, WI 54919-0006, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Trust and investment management services are not deposits, are not FDIC insured, are not insured by any federal governmental agency, are not guaranteed by Thrivent Financial Bank, and may go down in value.