When you retain personal ownership of your property through the time of your death and use a will as your vehicle of transfer your estate is going to have to go through the process of probate. During this period the court will examine your will to determine its validity, and if it was to be contested the probate or surrogate court would be the venue. Any creditors who have claims against the estate must be notified and satisfied, and the assets in the estate must be inventoried and readied for … [Read more...] about Save Time & Money With Living Trusts
Ethical Wills Explained
Everyone is familiar with the standard will, which is the most basic vehicle of transfer used in estate planning. In addition to this document there is another type of will that is now being widely recommended called the the living will. This legal instrument is used to express your wishes with regard to medical preferences should a time come when you can't make decisions in real time due to incapacitation. A living will is usually going to address the issue of life support and to what extent … [Read more...] about Ethical Wills Explained
Succession Planning & Buy-Sell Agreements
Estate planning for small business owners is a bit more intricate than it is for other folks, but owning a share in a business can actually simplify your overall planning in some important ways. It may seem like an exercise in overstating the obvious, but having a source of fresh, ongoing income throughout your retirement years is a very good thing. When you have to plan ahead to stretch your retirement savings through the next twenty-five years or so it can be quite challenging. When your … [Read more...] about Succession Planning & Buy-Sell Agreements
How Can A Post-Nuptial Agreement Help?
When you are entering into a marriage with considerable assets and/or children from a previous marriage or marriages, the reasons why you may want to enter into a premarital agreement are clear. There is sometimes a stigma attached, but the notion that a prenuptial agreement is a romance killing instance of bet hedging can only logically proceed if you think that all marriages are of the storybook variety. The fact is that upwards of half of the marriages that take place in the United States … [Read more...] about How Can A Post-Nuptial Agreement Help?
Estate Planning & Medical Gifts
Once you recognize the fact that the value of your estate is going to exceed the estate tax exclusion amount one of your primary goals is going to be to gain tax efficiency. This can be done by situating your assets in an intelligent manner and by transferring assets while you are still alive without incurring any tax liability. As we have previously covered in this space tax-free gift giving is a way to pass assets to your heirs in a tax-free manner while reducing the taxable value of your … [Read more...] about Estate Planning & Medical Gifts
A Different Type Of Long-Term Planning
While you are still involved in your career as your primary focus you will invariably be working on your long-term financial plan in an effort to prepare for an active retirement and the twilight years that will follow. When you work together with an estate planning professional you are going to be looking at averages when you are projecting costs, and this is the only logical way to proceed. But if you want to use the right numbers you have to drill down a little bit further, look past pure … [Read more...] about A Different Type Of Long-Term Planning
Make Estate Planning Enjoyable
Unless we see some new legislation passed in Congress the estate tax exclusion in 2011 is just $1 million, and this is profound in light of the fact that it was $3.5 million in 2009 before the repeal that was in effect in 2010. So this is leaving a lot more estates vulnerable to the tax, and the top rate is 55% so this federal levy is certainly something to be avoided. One way to reduce the value of your estate in an effort to avoid estate tax exposure is through the giving of tax-free gifts. … [Read more...] about Make Estate Planning Enjoyable
What is a QTIP?
Statistics vary on the subject and it is hard to find a hard and fast number but it would be safe to say that upward of 40% of marriages ultimately end in divorce, and it is estimated that about 75% of these people remarry and most of them form blended families. Estate planning can be a sensitive and somewhat complex matter even when the family dynamic is simple, but when you have a blended family it can become even more complex. When you are in love to the point of asking someone to marry you … [Read more...] about What is a QTIP?
The Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
The most elegant solution to any equation is going to be the most efficient one, and being able to satisfy dual objectives through one action is the height of efficiency. There are several estate planning tools that "kill two birds with one stone," as it were, and one of them is the grantor retained annuity trust or GRAT. The two goals we address here are the reduction of the overall value of your estate to gain estate tax efficiency, and the ability to give a gift to an heir free of the gift … [Read more...] about The Grantor Retained Annuity Trust
Elder Law At A Glance
The field of elder law involves all of the issues that are relevant to people as they age, and of course estate planning is one of these. Estate planning when taken literally entails making preparations for the transfer of your assets to your heirs after your death. This sounds simple enough, but there can be so much taxation involved in it that many people need to situate their assets in creative ways to avoid the taxman. This is one of the reason why trusts are so frequently used by estate … [Read more...] about Elder Law At A Glance
