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:
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Nuts & Bolts of Estate Planning – The Basics
Most discussions of estate planning, including in this newsletter, focus on discrete topics and strategies. Once in a while, especially early in the year, it is good idea to step back and look at the broader picture. There are concepts and strategies common to every estate plan and estate owner. Use these concepts and strategies […]
Estate Planning Estate Tax and Trust Tricks, Traps for Married Couples
Too many married couples are making a big mistake. They believe current estate tax law exempts them from having to plan or consider estate taxes in their plans. That misunderstanding could lead to problems. While the estate tax law enacted in early 2013 has many benefits, you need to know how to maximize them. Two […]
You Can Lock in the Forgotten Feature of Most Retirement and Estate Plans
To My Heirs: A Book of Final Wishes and Instructions My Two-in-One Workbook All plans need it. Few plans have it. Yours can have it now. Change can be an opportunity. Or it can lead to hardship. The difference often depends on how well you and your loved ones adapt and adjust. You know big […]
Retirement Spending Model
Bob Carlson of Retirement Watch has developed a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that enables individuals to develop a custom model of their retirement spending. You will need Microsoft Word to read the instruction sheet and Microsoft Excel to work with the spreadsheet. Click on the links below to download the appropriate files. Retirement Spending Spreadsheet Instructions […]
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The Classics: The Way to Wealth
Benjamin Franklin Courteous Reader, I have heard that nothing gives an Author so great Pleasure, as to find his Works respectfully quoted by other learned Authors. This Pleasure I have seldom enjoyed; for tho’ I have been, if I may say it without Vanity, an eminent Author of Almanacks annually now a full Quarter of […]
The Classics: The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Half a league half a league Half a league onward All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred: `Forward the Light Brigade Charge for the guns’ he said Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred `Forward the Light Brigade!’ Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldier […]
The Classics: IF
Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, […]
How to Put Together Complete Estate Planning Documents and Strategies
Many people think they have estate plans but really don’t. I’m not talking about the many people who haven’t done any planning and don’t have even a basic will. I’m talking about people who have taken action on their estate plans and yet have plans that are woefully incomplete. There is more to a complete […]
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
