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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Investing Strategies to Help Grandkids
Summer is filled with tax-advantaged ways to provide financial help for grandkids who are old enough to work. The Estate Planning strategies also work during other periods when the youngsters work. Some of the estate planning strategies are useful only if you own a business, but first here’s one that everyone can use. You can […]
Estate Planning for Digital Assets
We moved rapidly from a paper to a digital business and financial world. Digital as-sets and transactions probably are a bigger part of your life than you realize, even when you think you don’t use much technology. The digital world needs to be in your estate plan, otherwise the cost and time involved in settling […]
Naming Trusts as IRA Beneficiaries
Trusts find their way into more and more estate plans, because they provide valuable benefits. Many people want to use trusts with their IRAs. I receive an increasing number of inquiries from readers asking how they can name a trust as beneficiary of their IRAs instead of individual heirs. That’s where they can get into […]
Knowing When to Update Your Estate Planning
Having an estate plan is important, but having one means only part of your job is done. A plan has to be complete and current. Not enough people have an estate plan, but of those that do a high percentage let their plans become outdated. Sometimes having a plan that isn’t current is worse than […]
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Everyone Needs an Estate Plan, and It’s Not About Taxes
Mickey Rooney passed away last week. He was a fabulously successful movie star in his prime and continued to perform most of his life. He was pitching products through infomercials the last few years. Yet, he apparently died with few assets to his name. This report alleges that he was abused and his money pilfered […]
Giving the Best Estate Planning Financial Advice to Grandkids
The best thing you can do to ensure the financial security of your grandkids isn’t to give them money or wealth, though that would be helpful. Sound advice based on the latest research is what the younger generations need more of, and they aren’t likely to get that advice from their parents or schools. The […]
Using Protection Trusts in Your Estate Planning to Help Heirs
“Great Fortunes Lost” was the title of an article in Fortune magazine some years ago. It described how various individuals, usually heirs, lost or squandered very large fortunes. Some of the individuals lost more than money. They lost their health or wasted their lives because of the effects wealth had on them. Many people I […]
Estate Planning Dangers in Inherited IRAs
People who inherit IRAs from somone’s Estate Planning need to be careful before they take any actions. They also need to be clear with the IRA custodian. Otherwise, the IRA might be inadvertently liquidated, triggering significant taxes. There are two mistakes commonly made by beneficiaries or custodians. After an IRA is inherited, it has to […]
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
