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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How To Secure Your Digital Legacy in Your Estate Plan
Almost all of us have digital assets that should be included in our estate plans. Technology and digital assets have become major parts of most of our lives, often more than we realize. A digital asset is any account, electronic device, or portion of a website that is password-protected. That covers a lot of ground. […]
7 Things About Wills You Must Know
Everyone has heard of wills, but many people don’t know some key facts about them. A will is essential to every estate plan and is a very powerful document. Many people are surprised to learn what they can do in a will, but they also are surprised what a will can’t do. First, there are […]
Is the “QTIP Trust” Right for Your Estate Plan? Part II
In last week’s edition of Retirement Watch Weekly, I introduced my readers to Qualified Terminal Interest Property (QTIP) trusts. Today, we’ll examine the most ideal situations in which to use them. 1. At least one spouse has children from a prior marriage, and that spouse wants to ensure that those children get at least a […]
Is the “QTIP Trust” Right for Your Estate Plan?
As we’ve seen, it is easy to cut your estate taxes to zero, especially if you’re married. All you have to do is leave everything to your spouse. Your estate gets an unlimited marital deduction for all property left to your spouse. So having your spouse inherit everything eliminates taxes on your estate. Despite the […]
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Supreme Court Shuts Down a State Scheme to Tax Out-of-State Trusts
States have been aggressively trying to expand their tax bases, and their efforts aren’t always successful. The U.S. Supreme Court recently shut down an attempt by North Carolina, which other states have fully or partially replicated, to impose income taxes on what are essentially out-of-state trusts. In the case, the trustee resided in Connecticut, the […]
Digital Estate Planning: How to Organize and Protect Your Digital Assets and Transactions
Your estate plan is incomplete if it doesn’t have arrangements for your digital life, including accounts, files, trans-actions and more. Technology is taking a greater role in our lives, even for those who consider themselves Luddites. It took a while, but estate law finally is just about caught up to technology, and it’s essential to […]
Estate Planning Checklist – 10 Simple Ways to Protect Your Assets, Part II
Here’s Part II of my retirement Asset Protection Plan. To review Part I, click here. 6. Create trusts. Irrevocable trusts usually protect assets from creditors of either the grantor or the beneficiaries of the trust. They also ensure that the assets are out of your estate for tax purposes. A good asset protection trust should […]
Estate Planning – 10-Step Asset Protection Plan and Checklist Part I
Taxes, the IRS, attorneys, and estate processing costs are not the only enemies of your wealth. More and more people are concerned about creditors, especially those created by lawsuits. With the estate tax not a concern for most, insurance coverage being reduced, and law suits increasing, many people are more concerned with this potential leak […]
