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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There are basic actions that should be taken in your Estate Planning, whether the estate is taxable or not. Too many people still believe that because their estates aren’t taxable under federal law, they don’t need to do any estate planning. Others think they’ll wait until the dust settles on the 2017 tax law before […]
In last week’s story, we reviewed the major potential “surrogates” in estate plans (the agents, trustees, executors, and others). Today we offer some pointers for reducing problems you may face with surrogate designations. Know all the surrogates you designated Review financial accounts, insurance policies, and estate planning documents to be sure you know who currently […]
There’s a time bomb ticking in many estate plans, possibly even in yours. You likely won’t even know if the bomb goes off… or, for that matter, how big the explosion will be. You see, the “bomb” is the person — or people — you name to act for you. Whether they act during your […]
Many estate plans don’t produce the results the owners intended… Which is too bad — because most of these failures are preventable. The failures usually don’t spring from the tax strategies or language in the will. The failures most often result from the human side, or soft side, of Estate Planning. There are two main […]
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.
When it comes to legacy planning, it’s all about the details. Before deciding to make specific bequests or other gifts from your estate, consider these additional strategies discussed below. Beneficiary designations Bequests of cash or property from your estate often are not the most tax efficient way to make charitable gift. That’s especially true when appreciated […]
Why bother with trusts when less than 1% of estates will pay estate or gift taxes? Many people are understandably, but mistakenly, thinking that way. Traditionally, tax savings were the primary reason to use trusts. But in 2018, individual estates worth up to $11.18 million are exempt from estate and gift taxes. Thanks to the […]
Why bother with trusts when less than 1% of estates will pay estate or gift taxes? Many people are understandably, but mistakenly, thinking that way. Traditionally, tax savings were the primary reason to use trusts. But in 2018, individual estates worth up to $11.18 million are exempt from estate and gift taxes. Thanks to the […]
You’ve probably seen the headlines about billions of dollars in lost money held by governments. They’re true, and some of the money might be yours. You don’t have to pay someone to find the money and return it to you. It’s easy to locate most of the lost money and have it returned. But a […]
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