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:

• What is Estate Planning – A Comprehensive Overview

Estate Tax, Gifts and Gift Giving

Knowing How Much of Your Estate to Give and When

May 1, 2010

Publication: Retirement Watch, Retirement Watch Weekly

The major issues in your estate plan are deciding who should receive your assets and how they should receive them (directly or through trusts, for example). Two other important issues that don’t receive as much attention are: How much wealth should you transfer sooner rather than later, and when should you give it? While these […]

Estate Planning

Avoiding Traps in the Expired Estate Tax

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

The expiration of the estate tax is not good news for every-one. A new tax replaced the estate tax, and some estates, mostly modest estates, will pay more in the new tax than they would under the old estate tax. People who previously weren’t worried about estate taxes have to worry about the new tax. […]

Estate Tax

Seizing the Family Loan Opportunity to Minimize Estate Taxes

March 1, 2010

Publication: Retirement Watch, Retirement Watch Weekly

The door soon will begin closing for the best opportunity ever to exploit a classic estate planning strategy. The strategy enables many families to transfer significant sums to the next generation while incurring few or no estate or gift taxes. Even estates that won’t be subject to estate taxes can use family loans to achieve […]

Estate Planning

Dealing with Repeal of the Estate Tax

Publication: Retirement Watch Weekly

The estate tax was repealed, at least temporarily, but the news is not all good. You know the 2001 tax law phased out the estate tax so it would be eliminated for 2010. But in 2011 the old estate tax law is to be reinstated if Congress does not take action. Everyone assumed Congress would […]

Estate Planning Mistakes

Avoiding a Major Estate Planning Pitfall

February 1, 2010

Publication: Retirement Watch, Retirement Watch Weekly

Estate Planning mistakes fall into two major categories. Retaining too much control for too long is the first category of major mistakes. Detailed  “incentive trusts” are a sign this mistake may be in the offing. These trusts parcel money over the years only as beneficiaries achieve detailed milestones. Incentive trusts sometimes try to control a […]