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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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estate planning

Key Estate Planning Questions Every Investor Must Answer

February 1, 2009

Estate Planning can be confusing and even intimidating to most people. They do not deal with the issues regularly, so the terms and concepts can be confusing. Most estate planners are not helpful, as discussed in our October 2008 visit (available on the web site archive). They are not adept at simplifying and explaining concepts. […]

February 2009

February 1, 2009

It Isn’t All Factored in Yet February 27, 2009 09:00 a.m. When the asset declines began in 2007 (and even before that) a number of investors and advisors began saying all the bad news already was factored into market prices. This mantra was repeated during and after each leg down in the markets, and especially […]

Estate Planning

Estate Plan Building Blocks: Estate Tax, The Marital Deduction and Trusts

January 1, 2009

Many people have procrastinated about Estate Planning. They delayed making or updating plans because of uncertainty over the tax law or turmoil in asset values. People naturally procrastinate because estate planning is complicated and full of unfamiliar terms and concepts. Most of you will have or at least consider the same basic tools and strategies […]

Asset Declines are an Estate Planning Opportunity

December 1, 2008

There is at least one silver lining in today’s dark cloud – Estate Planning opportunities are being created. Today we have a rare opportunity to transfer wealth to younger generations while incurring very low gift and estate taxes. Falling market prices and low interest rates are a great combination for estate planners. If the price […]

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estate planning

Money-Saving Move for Estate Planning in 2008

December 1, 2008

A little-known provision of the estate tax can save quite a bit of taxes for estates of those who passed away in late 2007 or the first part of 2008. The estate tax is based on the value of the estate assets, normally the value on the date of the owner’s death. The executor, however, […]

how-the-turmoil-can-alter-trusts

How the Turmoil Can Alter Trusts

November 1, 2008

The financial crisis is causing major changes in the banking business, and that will lead to changes at trust companies and in trustees. Trust creators and beneficiaries need to at least monitor the situation and might need to take action. Many trusts have a corporate trustee or co-trustee, such as a bank or trust company. […]

why-most-estate-plans-fail

Why Most Estate Plans Fail

October 1, 2008

A large percentage of estate plans fail to achieve one or more of their goals, and many of them fail for a surprising reason. In past visits we discussed the ways trustees, heirs, changed circumstances, and new laws upend estate plans. What we have not discussed is the most surprising and perhaps most frequent reason […]

April – September 2008

September 1, 2008

September 30, 2008 10:30 a.m. The Shadow Bank Run Well, so much for the notion that short sellers were driving stock prices down. You know how much stocks declined yesterday, and they fell that far without anyone being allowed to sell short 900 or so stocks. I don’t know if the rescue plan that was […]

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