Estate Planning
Estate Planning is the process of determining how your wealth and assets should be transferred to the heirs of your choice: your children, grandchildren, friends, families, charitable causes, etc. and then deciding which legal tools and structures to use to best meet your estate planning goals.
Estate planning is not simply reducing or eliminating taxes and avoiding probate. Only after establishing how you want your estate’s assets to be distributed should you consider ways to reduce taxes and avoid probate. From there, good estate plans deal with a host of other issues. Now, with all but a few estates exempt from the federal estate tax, those other issues are, or should be, at the forefront of estate planning.
An estate plan is to ensure that you are taken care of the rest of your life and that your wealth is transferred to the people you want to have it. A good estate plan ensures these goals are accomplished with as much efficiency and as little cost as possible. An estate plan addresses the management and distribution of an individual’s property and financial obligations after he or she dies with financial tools such as wills, revocable living trusts and power of attorney.
For a comprehensive overview of Estate Planning, please start with our article:
Found 775 Articles.
Get access to our full article archive by subscribing to Retirement Watch and Retirement Watch Spotlight Series.
Can You Afford these Estate Planning Mistakes?
In Part 1 of this article, we reviewed some classic Estate Planning mistakes that are fairly common among retirees. Today, let’s continue the discussion with four more oversights, so you can evaluate your own estate planning process. Leaving assets outright to adult children. Many people believe trusts are needed only when minor children inherit. […]
7 Estate Planning Mistakes That Could Be Costing You
If you’ve never seen an Estate Planning professional… Or if your estate planning hasn’t been revised within the last three years… Then your plan is likely to have at least one of these classic mistakes. Today let’s go through these estate planning mistakes, one by one… 1. Relying only on a will. A written […]
Happy Thanksgiving 2018
Happy Thanksgiving to all my subscribers and readers. I’m thankful for the opportunity to help each of you establish and maintain your financial independence. Most people believe the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I don’t want to upset any of my readers and friends in the Bay State, but the first Thanksgiving in […]
The Resurgence of The Wind-up Watch
I recently saw an item in a Forbes magazine about vintage watches. The article said that in this age of digital technology, collectors and investors suddenly are more interested in old wind-up, analog watches. This warmed my heart. I still have and wind daily the pocket watch my parents gave me for my 21st birthday. […]
SUBSCRIBE TO Lifetime Retirement Protection Program
Bob’s exclusive new service gives members the tools and knowledge to maximize their retirement finances for the rest of their lives. The Lifetime Retirement Protection Program includes all monthly issues of Bob’s Retirement Watch newsletter, all monthly video webinars in his Retirement Watch Spotlight service, every one of Bob’s premium reports and white papers (past and future), complete access to RetirementWatch.com, and 90 days’ membership in Eagle Financial’s DividendInvestor.com. Click here now to access all of Bob Carlson’s research.
How to Plan for Family Conflicts, Difficult Beneficiaries and Disinherited Heirs
A difficult or irresponsible potential heir can wreak havoc on your estate if you don’t recognize the risks and plan for them. It doesn’t take much for a person to mount a will contest or other legal attack on your estate plan, upending the entire plan. Court records are filled with cases in which a […]
The 2018 Year-End Checklist for Retirees and Near-Retirees
Year-end financial planning is much more than tax planning, and it is very different this year. Making the right financial moves before Dec. 31 each year can extend the life of your nest egg. It is especially important to make shrewd moves as the year closes. You have to incorporate changes made by the Tax […]
Bob’s Journal (11/8/2018)
The markets tend to like midterm elections and divided governments, but this year could be different. So far, stock indices have had the best rally after midterm elections in over 30 years. Should we expect it to continue? Since 1946, after midterm elections, the S&P 500 averages a gain of 3.26% through the end of […]
Dear Reader (November 2018):
Almost everyone uses heuristic techniques. Unfortunately, the ways many people use them in their finances diminishes financial security. Heuristic is a fancy word for a short cut or rule of thumb. A formal definition is that it is a practical method for solving a problem, one that is not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect. […]
Asset Protection
Building a Legacy
Business Ownership and Succession
Digital Assets Estate Planning
Estate Planning Basics
Estate Planning Checklist
Estate Planning for Singles
Estate Planning Forms and Documents
Estate Planning Mistakes
Estate Planning Strategies
Estate Tax
Executors and Trustees
Family Limited Partnerships
Gifts and Gift Giving
Grandchildren
Heirs, Beneficiaries, and Children
IRAs & Your Estate
Power of Attorney
Probate
Trusts
Wills and Estate Planning
