Estate Planning

Wills, Trusts, Durable Power of Attorney, Living Will/Advanced Medical Directive and Other Related Estate Planning Documents

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Benefits of Estate Planning

Effective estate planning establishes and facilitates the orderly transfer of assets to your beneficiaries while providing security and protection for your surviving spouse and children.

Comprehensive estate planning can eliminate or minimize the estate and inheritance taxes that may be due on the transfer of your personal wealth or your business. For an exploration of some of these issues please my article Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett: Estate Plan Wake Up Call.

The implementation of the various aspects of the best estate planning strategy must be based on each family’s particular or special needs. All these complex considerations need to be blended and combined to create a well conceived, comprehensive, effective estate plan that will actually work.

Estate Planning For Business Owners

For business owners, providing for business continuity and succession of ownership is essential to the continued success of the business. Business transition planning can minimize family discord after the death of the owner of such family business. For an interesting article exploring these issues please go to our hypertext article entitled Gifting Shares of Stock In A Bad Economy

We can guide you through the complex process of getting your financial affairs in order. It is imperative to properly effectuating your estate plan with the proper legal documents such as wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and advance medical directives/living wills.

Estate Planning For Beneficiary Designations

Often overlooked is determining the proper beneficiary designations for life insurance, retirement plans, IRAs, Roth IRAs, and annuities. Coordinating these designations with the overall estate plan and documents is an extremely important part of estate planning. Our firm offers the experience and understanding as to how to best coordinate these diverse assets into an integrated, well conceived estate plan for the specific client’s estate planning needs and goals.

Estate Planning For How Assets Should Be Owned or Titled

Any solid estate plan includes not only the drafting of appropriate legal documents, but should also include an analysis of how assets are currently titled between family members. As a result of such review, the realignment of assets may be required between spouses, or by making various gifts to family members or to charitable trusts, if appropriate, or by changing beneficiaries of life insurance, retirement plans, IRAs and annuities.

Gift Planning: An Important Part of Estate Planning

As part of comprehensive estate planning the use of various gifting techniques are usually employed to take advantage of various tax breaks. For a discussion of the federal gift tax rules please go to the hypertext article entitled Gift Giving: A Way To Save Estate, Gift and Income Taxes

Estate Plans Need To Be Revised with Changes in Life

Finally, changes to the family situation, finances and other events should trigger the review of the current estate plan. For some of the events that should trigger a call to action and analysis, please see the legal guide entitled ESTATE PLANNING HOT BUTTONS.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to assist you in updating your estate plan. We are here to help you in this most important matter.