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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Why Estate Planning Details are Important: Debts and Estate Taxes
I regularly remind readers about the nitty gritty details of Estate Planning?stating who pays debts and taxes, ensuring whether the estate will have enough cash, and appointing executors and trustees. These are not as exciting as the issues that are most discussed, such as tax reduction strategies, but these are the key issues that determine […]
Simple, Low-Cost Ways to Help Family Members
The downturn in the economy and fall in asset prices puts many grandparents in a tough position. They want to help their children and grandchildren, but do not believe they can afford to help as much as in the past or as they hoped. Fortunately, you still can provide help. There are many simple, low-cost […]
Estate Planning for Those with Special Needs
Estate Planning often focuses on healthy people and their families. Many families, however, have one or more members with chronic illnesses or conditions. That changes the estate planning equation. The person with the illness or condition might be the estate owner or a loved one of the owner, especially a child. In either case, the […]
A Checklist of Estate Planning Issues to Remember
Estate Planning discussions tend to focus on the big picture, big money issues. Who receives what? Should we use a living trust to avoid probate? If estate taxes are a possibility, the menu of estate tax reduction strategies is considered. There are a host of other issues that often are overlooked. Sometimes the estate planner […]
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Roth IRAs for Summer Work
Here is a power-packed way to help your grandchildren or children this summer. It gives them a financial incentive to work, but it also is a long-term incentive that will show them the value of saving and investing. Plus, you will provide them the core of a nest egg with Roth IRAs. The strategy is […]
Estate Planning to Handle the Two Trickiest Assets – The Family Home and Personal Property
Experienced Estate Planning professionals know the assets most likely to cause problems with heirs are those estate owners treat routinely. Often, it is the commonplace assets the owner does not give much thought to that stir up emotions among at least some of the heirs. It is not a problem only of the rich. Sometimes […]
June 2009
June 26. 2009 10:00 a.m. Highlighs from the Week I don’t usually comment on Federal Reserve’s actions or the statements that go along with its policy announcements. But this week’s announcement is worth a note. While the statement is very similar to the last statement, it definitely is more cautious and even pessimistic about the […]
Estate Planning Basics for Everyone
Now, only the very wealthy have to worry about Estate Planning. Many Americans are starting to think that way. Congress will not let the estate tax expire in 2010. Instead, it is likely to enact a permanent law with an exemption equal to or exceeding 2009’s $3.5 million level. To many people that means their […]
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Estate Planning Basics
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Estate Planning for Singles
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Estate Planning Strategies
Estate Tax
Executors and Trustees
Family Limited Partnerships
Gifts and Gift Giving
Grandchildren
Heirs, Beneficiaries, and Children
IRAs & Your Estate
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