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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7 Steps to Develop Your Best Estate Plan
Creating or updating an estate plan can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a lot of pieces to a plan and decisions to be made. That’s why many people procrastinate and don’t create or update their plans, though they know it’s important. To develop your best estate plan, I recommend breaking […]
Can Password Managers Aid with Digital Asset Management?
Several tools might make it easier for you to manage the access to your digital accounts and pass that information to your executor and heirs. The standard tool for a few years has been the password manager. This is a software service that can manage and protect passwords or other access information for all your […]
What Your Smartphone, Email and Other Digital Assets Mean for Your Estate Plan
A few small oversights in an estate plan can cause your surviving spouse or adult children to say harsh things about you, think worse things, and diminish your legacy. I’ve witnessed this multiple times. In recent years, digital assets usually are the cause. Fortunately, it’s preventable with a relatively modest amount of time and effort. […]
Estate Planning for the Growing ‘Unmarried Population’
In last week’s edition of Retirement Watch Weekly, I presented Estate Planning for “Modern Families.” There’s a lot more ground to cover, so let’s dive right back in – starting with estate tax implications for single people. Under the estate and gift tax, singles do not have the advantage of the marital deduction. An unmarried […]
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How Higher Interest Rates Change Estate Planning Strategies
The benefits of different estate planning strategies change with interest rates. The advantages of different strategies changed significantly over the last couple of years as interest rates jumped higher. When interest rates rise, the pay- offs of some strategies increase while others lose some of their appeal. After a significant change in yields, reconsider strategies […]
A Little Extra Planning Can Avoid ‘Heir Wars’
The legacy of late California Senator Dianne Feinstein was tarnished by a series of law- suits filed before her death. The suits revealed rifts in the family and shortcomings in the estate plans of Feinstein and her late husband. Feinstein’s late husband Richard Blum, a wealthy investor, passed away in February 2022. Both Blum and […]
Introducing the Most Misunderstood Element of Estate Planning: Gift Tax Returns
Gift tax returns could be the most misunderstood, neglected and overlooked part of estate planning. There are many people who know estate planning quite well but draw blanks about gift tax returns. The gift tax return is IRS Form 709. You can download it free from irs.gov. The first mistake people make is not knowing […]
The Foundations of a Great Estate Plan [Part 2]
Today we’ll pick up where we left off last week, with more tips to help you make the most of your estate plan. The first is a tricky topic, and sometimes highly charged. Should Heirs Get Equal Shares of the Estate? Parents have several different reasons for considering leaving unequal shares of their estates to […]
Asset Protection
Building a Legacy
Business Ownership and Succession
Digital Assets Estate Planning
Estate Planning Basics
Estate Planning Checklist
Estate Planning for Singles
Estate Planning Forms and Documents
Estate Planning Mistakes
Estate Planning Strategies
Estate Tax
Executors and Trustees
Family Limited Partnerships
Gifts and Gift Giving
Grandchildren
Heirs, Beneficiaries, and Children
IRAs & Your Estate
Power of Attorney
Probate
Trusts
Wills and Estate Planning
