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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Changing Your Estate Planning Strategy Under the New Tax Law
One of the major surprises in the December 2010 estate tax law is known as portability. Under the old law (and the law that is scheduled to return in 2013 if Congress doesn’t act before then) each person had a lifetime estate tax exemption with a use-it-or-lose-it feature. If your estate didn’t use all your […]
Updating Estate Plans for the New Tax Law
It’s time to pull out your estate plan, make an appointment with your planner, and begin a thorough review. Congress finally pass-ed a new estate tax last December, and each of us should revise our wills and other documents to reflect the changes. The changes are only for 2011 and 2012, but you need to […]
How to Complete Your Estate Planning Strategy
Most estate plans are woefully incomplete, and heirs and loved ones often suffer. Of course, too many people don’t have any estate plan. Of those that do, some think a living trust or joint title to assets with their spouse is all they need. Others think a will and trust is a complete estate plan. […]
Buying Only One Fund for Long Term Estate Planning for Grandchildren
Setting money aside for a grandchild, or helping a grand-child who is starting to save without proper Estate Planning, presents a problem. Usually the initial savings are relatively small. Few grandchildren begin with portfolios of $100,000 or more. A portfolio of a few thousand dollars or less presents a problem when you are trying to […]
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Choosing a Trustee for a Winning Estate Planning Strategy
Trusts are an important component of many estate planning strategies. Once used only by the wealthy to reduce taxes, trusts now meet a variety of needs for estates of all sizes. A trust can be used to avoid probate, hold life insurance, preserve assets for beneficiaries, and meet a range of other goals. The unfortunate […]
Adding Life Insurance Trusts to Your Estate Planning Strategy
Life insurance used to be a standard part of almost every Estate Planning Strategy. In recent years, insurance moved to the back burner or completely off the menu of many estate planning strategies. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the very wealthy make up the bulk of current permanent life […]
Evaluating a Codicil vs. a New Will for your Estate Planning Strategy
When an Estate Planning Strategy needs updating, there’s always one key question. Should an entire will be written and executed, or is a simple amendment sufficient? An amendment to a will in lawyer talk is a codicil. It’s an important question, and not one to be taken lightly. The advantage of a codicil is you […]
Estate Planning to Make Gifts While Avoiding Taxes
The estate tax is suspended for 2010, but the gift tax still is in place and will remain when the estate tax is restored. An advantage to adjusting your Estate Planning and making gifts in 2010 is the gift tax rate is its lowest in decades: 35%. Also the generation-skipping tax is repealed for the […]
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Estate Planning Strategies
Estate Tax
Executors and Trustees
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Gifts and Gift Giving
Grandchildren
Heirs, Beneficiaries, and Children
IRAs & Your Estate
Power of Attorney
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Wills and Estate Planning
