Estate Planning
Estate planning encompasses a broad spectrum of activities, from making a Will, to protecting assets from unforeseen creditors (not just yours, but your ultimate beneficiaries), to giving legal authority to trusted loved ones to care for you or your children in the event you are incapacitated.
Distribution Planning
Everyone has an estate plan. If you don't make it yourself, the state has a default plan for you. State laws of intestacy determine the beneficiaries of an intestate decedent (someone who dies without a will). Even when the default plan matches your wishes, it is almost guaranteed that your beneficiaries will have to spend a lot more money and deal with extra stress before they succeed in transferring the legal title to your assets. Wills, trusts, payable on death, and joint tenancies are some of the techniques for distribution planning.
Incapacity Planning
You are more likely to become incapacitated than you are of dying, at least until you reach an advanced age. Consequently, it is critically important for everyone to have proper powers of attorney, directives, and declarations. A lack of planning in this area can lead to the need for burdensome and expensive guardianship proceedings and often results in great strife among family members.
Tax Planning
The need for tax planning isn't just a problem for the wealthy. Making sure that your estate is distributed with no more estate or gift taxes than is legally required is important, and the steps currently needed for a married couple to avoid losing one of their estate exemptions (having to pay double) are fairly straight forward. There are other types of tax planning that can mean the difference in thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for future generations. A key planning area involves retirement assets, which can be protected against beneficiaries creditors, divorce, and the beneficiaries own failure to follow the myriad tax regulations to maximize the long term value of your lifetime earnings.
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