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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Reasons to Avoid Dying Intestate
Americans put their wills on the backburner in recent years, and it could cost their estates and heirs plenty. The data is clear. In 2004 only 42% of adults had even a basic will, versus 47% in 2000, according to legal publisher Martindale-Hubbell. Other studies have similar results. LegalZoom.com found that only 75% of adults […]
HIPAA-compliant Estate Planning
The law of unintended consequences has struck again. Because of it, some standard Estate Planning tools need to be reworked, and existing plans might need some revisions in the next few years. Congress decided Americans’ medical privacy needed more protection, so in 1996 it passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. […]
Estate Planning for Community Property
Estate Planning can be different for married couples who live in the eight community property states. The one-third of Americans who live in those states need to take their state laws into account and make a few adjustments from traditional estate plans. Community property laws say that property acquired before the marriage and inheritances are […]
Estate Planning: New Family Limited Partnership Rulings
Last year a number of estate planners worried that the IRS and the Tax Court nailed shut the door on family limited partnerships. A recent federal appeals court decision recently made clear the door still is open, and it set some guidelines for the successful use of FLPs. Family limited partnerships have been premier estate […]
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Shrewd Family Gift Giving for Estate Planning
Don’t wait until the end of the year to plan gifts to family members. Annual gifts are an important part of many estate plans, but most people don’t handle gifts the best way. Planning gifts now will increase the amount of wealth that is transferred tax-free to your heirs. The goals of gift-giving are to […]
How Markets Affect Your Estate Planning
The financial markets have changed many estate plans, and most people don’t even know it. Estate planners don’t always realize what the markets have done to their clients’ plans. After the market upheavals of the last year, it is a good idea now to review your estate plan to see how its results might have […]
Developing the Complete Estate Planning Strategy
A will plus a trust or two simply do not make a complete estate plan. Most estate plans are woefully incomplete. Heirs and loved ones often suffer as a consequence. A complete estate plan does more than decide how your assets will be divided and how taxes will be reduced. A full estate plan meets […]
Estate Planning Strategies to Help Heirs While Protecting Wealth
Incentive trusts and protective trusts are all the rage. Many people want to be generous with succeeding generations – now or in their wills – but they want some assurance the wealth won’t be wasted. People are concerned that inheriting wealth might reduce an heir’s work ethic. They don’t want the money to disappear in […]
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