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:
Found 709 Articles.
Get access to our full article archive by subscribing to Retirement Watch and Retirement Watch Spotlight Series.
Cashing in on Congress’ $350,000 Retirement Shocker
To read the Special Report, please click the PDF below. […]
Your 20-Minute Estate Plan: Building a Lasting Legacy
Estate planning should be a key part of your financial planning. Unfortunately most planning experts shroud the topic in complex tax, legal, and insurance jargon that will disinterest most people. I’ve put together this report to provide you with simple, practical explanations that will help determine the right elements of your estate plan. To learn more, click the PDF below. […]
The New Rules of Estate Planning
To read the Special Report, please click the PDF below. […]
The Essential Guide for Retiring in the 2020’s
The insurance decisions during and near retirement are some of the most important and complicated in your lifetime. Click the PDF below to discover a few simple ways to protect your assets and reduce your costs in all areas of insurance. […]
SUBSCRIBE TO RETIREMENT WATCH
What you don’t know about retirement can hurt you. In fact, just a few wrong decisions in your investments, taxes, or estate planning could completely derail your retirement plans. Worse yet, the rules of the game keep changing, making it harder to keep up. For these reasons, I’ve assembled all the key points – everything you need to know — into one comprehensive report. Click here today for free access.
All the Ways You Can (Legally) Avoid Probate
Avoiding probate often is a major estate planning goal, but most people don’t learn all the strategies available. In probate, a deceased person’s estate is administered and distributed according to state and local law. The process ensures debts are paid and legal title to assets passes as the decedent wanted, or according to state law […]
How to Insure Your Way to a Rock-Solid Retirement
The insurance decisions during and near retirement are some of the most important and complicated in your lifetime. Click the PDF below to discover a few simple ways to protect your assets and reduce your costs in all areas of insurance. […]
Get To Know These 6 ‘Hidden’ Estate Planning Opportunities
Opportunities to increase family after-tax wealth arise throughout the year… Yet all too often go unnoticed. Estate planning should be viewed as more than an obligation to be undertaken as infrequently as possible. It is a continuing exercise that’s rife with the potential to protect assets, reduce income taxes, simplify personal finances and more. The […]
The 6 Most Common Ways Retirement Plans Fall Apart
It doesn’t take much to send a solid retirement plan off the rails. Fortunately, the likely causes of retirement failures are well-known and often avoidable. Here are the six most common reasons retirement plans fall short of their goals: 1. Helping too much People often dip too far into their retirement funds to help loved […]
