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 733 Articles.
Get access to our full article archive by subscribing to Retirement Watch and Retirement Watch Spotlight Series.
Learning Estate Planning Strategies from “Tony Soprano”
The passing of actor James Gandolfini, best known as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, received a lot of publicity. Not all the publicity was in the entertainment or celebrity media. Financial and legal media pounced on Gandolfini’s will, generating a lot of commentary from lawyers and Estate Planning specialists, little of it positive. Gandolfini’s estate […]
Putting Power in Your Power of Attorney for Estate Planning
A financial Power of Attorney is essential to your Estate Planning. Even when you aren’t ready to finalize a will or living trust, you should have a financial POA. The document ensures that someone can manage your estate planning when you are unable to. Bills can be paid; investments can be managed; and other actions […]
Should You Disinherit a Child or Family Member
Every family has one. It’s the black sheep, or the lost child, or some other version of the child that is either looked down upon by the rest of the family or even estranged. Should a parent disinherit such a child? It’s legal, but it’s an extreme action and can have unanticipated effects. Take a […]
Evaluating the Estate Planning Probate Decision
Probate rises to the forefront of Estate Planning. With only a small minority of estates at risk of owing federal estate taxes, the greater threat to separating your wealth from the objects of your affection and delaying the transfer is probate. Regardless of the value of your estate, you need to spend time considering probate. […]
SUBSCRIBE TO Lifetime Retirement Protection Program
Bob’s exclusive new service gives members the tools and knowledge to maximize their retirement finances for the rest of their lives. The Lifetime Retirement Protection Program includes all monthly issues of Bob’s Retirement Watch newsletter, all monthly video webinars in his Retirement Watch Spotlight service, every one of Bob’s premium reports and white papers (past and future), complete access to RetirementWatch.com, and 90 days’ membership in Eagle Financial’s DividendInvestor.com. Click here now to access all of Bob Carlson’s research.
Showing Grandchildren the Way of Sound Estate Planning
I find that no matter the value of a person’s estate, almost everyone would like to leave something for the grandchildren (or the children). But they don’t want whatever they leave to be wasted. Therefore, demonstrating sound Estate Planning is important. Almost everyone knows the unfortunate statistics of poor estate planning. About 70% of family […]
Reviewing the Estate Planning Basics
Now, only the very wealthy have to worry about Estate Planning. That’s what many people believe after the latest estate tax law, and that belief could cause a lot of problems for them and their heirs. Estate planning is more than tax reduction. Estate planning ensures that your wealth is transferred to those you want […]
Estate Planning Tax Law Changes Investors Must Understand
A revolution is underway in Estate Planning. You know about the 2012 changes to the law (see our February 2013 issue). They require fresh approaches and strategies. Many believe the new law means estate planning is unimportant. That’s a mistake. A result of the 2012 law is that for most people income taxes are a […]
Stepping Up Estate Planning Tax Reduction Plans
Well-off readers and those on the path to wealth should step up their Estate Planning tax reduction plans. You have some breathing room since Congress passed the ?permanent? estate tax in January. But a number of tax reduction strategies still are at risk. Most people won’t be subject to the estate tax. But estate taxes […]
