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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Why a Living Will Is Not Enough for Estate Planning
Every few years the media latches on to a case of someone in a coma or similar medical distress. The family members and doc-tors don’t agree on what the next step should be, generating the conflict, controversy, and story. The lesson from the media always is: Be sure you have a Living Will. The answer […]
A Classic Failed Estate Plan
Louis Feil wasn’t widely-known, but he was a successful, prosperous real estate owner and developer in New York City. He expanded the operation, so the family owns properties well beyond New York. He died in 1999 with the intention of keeping the business in the family. One son, who already was running the business, was […]
Learning Estate Planning Strategies from “Tony Soprano”
The passing of actor James Gandolfini, best known as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, received a lot of publicity. Not all the publicity was in the entertainment or celebrity media. Financial and legal media pounced on Gandolfini’s will, generating a lot of commentary from lawyers and Estate Planning specialists, little of it positive. Gandolfini’s estate […]
Putting Power in Your Power of Attorney for Estate Planning
A financial Power of Attorney is essential to your Estate Planning. Even when you aren’t ready to finalize a will or living trust, you should have a financial POA. The document ensures that someone can manage your estate planning when you are unable to. Bills can be paid; investments can be managed; and other actions […]
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Should You Disinherit a Child or Family Member
Every family has one. It’s the black sheep, or the lost child, or some other version of the child that is either looked down upon by the rest of the family or even estranged. Should a parent disinherit such a child? It’s legal, but it’s an extreme action and can have unanticipated effects. Take a […]
Evaluating the Estate Planning Probate Decision
Probate rises to the forefront of Estate Planning. With only a small minority of estates at risk of owing federal estate taxes, the greater threat to separating your wealth from the objects of your affection and delaying the transfer is probate. Regardless of the value of your estate, you need to spend time considering probate. […]
Showing Grandchildren the Way of Sound Estate Planning
I find that no matter the value of a person’s estate, almost everyone would like to leave something for the grandchildren (or the children). But they don’t want whatever they leave to be wasted. Therefore, demonstrating sound Estate Planning is important. Almost everyone knows the unfortunate statistics of poor estate planning. About 70% of family […]
Reviewing the Estate Planning Basics
Now, only the very wealthy have to worry about Estate Planning. That’s what many people believe after the latest estate tax law, and that belief could cause a lot of problems for them and their heirs. Estate planning is more than tax reduction. Estate planning ensures that your wealth is transferred to those you want […]
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Estate Planning Basics
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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
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Wills and Estate Planning
