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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Trusts that Save Taxes and Families
The family residence often is one of the most valuable assets in a person’s estate. Despite recent price declines in numerous markets, many people own homes worth far more than they paid for them. The residence often accounts for a significant portion of a person’s net worth. The personal residence can create both estate tax […]
June 2007
June 25, 2007 12:00 p.m. Will Congress Stop This Market? Last week I asked what can stop this bull market. There are only a few things that derail a stock market rally. The current bull run has been in place since March 2003 without a correction approaching 10%. The small correction in 2006 bottomed about […]
The Multi-State Estate Plan
Readers with homes or other property in more than one state should take special care in their estate plans. There are lawyers who advise drafting separate wills and other Estate Planning documents for each state involved. You shouldn’t need to do that much work. The estate plan, however, does need to recognize that multiple states […]
How Annual Family Meetings Help You Leave a Legacy
In the financial and estate planning industry a current rage is The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall, a book that recently was made into a movie. The novel is about a very wealthy man who realized that his wealth could not buy him what really matters. Throughout his life, he attempted to make his loved […]
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May 2007
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Simple Ways to Build Bullet-Proof Trusts
Estate planners love trusts. They solve many problems and help achieve goals. In recent years, trusts have moved from the estate plans of the very wealthy into the plans of many families. Too often, however, trusts operate as bombs that explode and shred estate plans. Fortunately, there are simple steps that will avoid the common […]
How to Build the Family Venture Capital and Loan Fund
Most people want to help their children and grandchildren, but they want to provide more than money. One goal is to ensure the future generations are hard-working and productive citizens who have initiative. Another goal is to perpetuate the family’s values. One of the values in some families is entrepreneurship. By encouraging entrepreneurial activities in […]
April 2007
April 27, 2007 10:00 a.m. Supporting the Stock Market What is pushing stocks higher? Analysts have been expecting a substantial correction for some time. It was only two month ago that pessimism was reigning, and many believed a substantial correction was underway. Yet, the Dow is hitting record highs, and the S&P 500 is not […]
