Estate Planning can save Headaches for Heirs

Estate planning is all about creating a plan for your assets that will save time and money for your heirs.  The idea is to take care of everything on the front end so there will be no problems on the back end.  This article from The Chicago Tribune by Janet Kidd highlights some important reasons to design a proper plan no matter the size of your estate.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/chi-tc-biz-ym-journey-1025oct25,0,7459878.story

An Update on the Estate Tax Debate

The Estate Tax expires after this year as part of President Bush’s long-term tax cuts.  However, in 2010 it comes back with a very low $1 million exemption.  Your estate will be taxed at 55% if you pass away and have more than $1 million in assets.  That includes life insurance which is a very large portion of most people’s total taxable estate.  President Obama has proposed to extend the current $3.5 million exemption.  Republicans wish the tax to disappear as part of Bush’s plan.  Many Democrats, such as Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, are reaching across the aisle to compromise and agreeing to a larger exemption ($5 million) as long as the estate tax remains.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125331968815724585.html

The Financial Risk of Not Having an Estate Plan

The American Association of Individual Investors is a non-profit organization that educates and guides investors.  This article was written by certified financial advisors with a risk assessment approach.  Their advice?  Avoid the financial risk associated with not having the proper estate plan.

http://www.aaii.com/includes/DisplayArticle.cfm?digit=219&Article_Id=2327

Pre-prepared Legal Documents – Why “Canned” Documents Can Get You Canned

Joanne Fanizza is an attorney licensed to practice law in New York, Florida and the District of Columbia, and maintains offices in Farmingdale, NY, and Fort Lauderdale, FL.  Her practice concentrates on estate planning.  She examines the inevitable problems that “fill-in-the-blank” documents can create.

http://ezinearticles.com/?id=2681000

05/30/2009 Broadcast of The Family Money Show: Preparing for the Unexpected

05/30/2009 Braodcast of The Family Money Show: Preparing for the unexpected.

Keeping It In The Family

This is an article researched and written by Stephen Davis and Alfred Brophy.  The topic is how Civil War-era families maintained their wealth within thier own families by properly using wills and trusts.  These families used Estate Planning tools that are still around today to accomplish many of the same goals that modern families strive for. 

Huge plantation estates were held in trusts for generations ensuring they would not fall to anyone outside of the family.  Families who were concerned about son-in-laws for their daughters had the daughter’s property held in trust so the the wealth would not be lost through marriages.

 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1398522

Avoiding Probate With a Trust

Have you ever had to take on the tedious process of probating an estate of a loved one?  Do you know there are ways to avoid the costly attorney fees, heartache and months and even years that come along with probate court?  Placing property inside a trust that would normally have to be probated is a great way to avoid probate court.  There are a multitude of reasons families create trusts.  Avoiding probate is one of the most popular.  Trusts can be complicated, but I try to make them as simple to understand as I can.  Additionally, make sure all of your accounts have the proper beneficiary designations.  Most accounts can pass outside of probate directly to your beneficiary if you have them set up the correct way.

George Washington’s Will

George Washington wrote his own will and it is one of the most eloquent documents in our great nation’s history.  George Washington’s will is still under custody of the Court Clerk of Fairfax County, Virginia where it was originally probated.  George Washington disposed of Mount Vernon and his large estate, left money for the creation of a national university (which is now George Washington University), created a school for orphans, forgave debts owed to him, freed his slaves and directed that they be educated.  Now, we all cannot create Universities with our wills, but we can make our wills personal and have them accomplish our dreams… whatever they may be.  Your will is one of the most important documents you will ever sign.  Make it your will and not a will simply created by cheap software.

Tangible Property In A Trust

I have been working on a Will for a new client.  She had a Will executed just a few years ago.  That Will contained maybe 50 bequests of specific property, things like furniture, furnishings, and jewelry.  She wants to change the Will because some of her beneficiaries have died, and because she wants to remove and add others.  In order to accomplish this, we will have to draft an entirely new Will or a Codicil.  Codicils are seperate documents that alter the terms of a Will.  I never reccommend these because what happens if a person has executed one or more Codicils, but the Codicils are not found with the original Will?  The Codicil is not worth anything and the terms of the original Will are followed if this happens. 

Dispersing tangible property like this is much easier if it’s done within the context of a trust:

1. As part of the living trust process, we assign the client’s tangible personal property to the trust.

2. The trust includes a provision allowing the client to leave a written direction, telling where specific items will be distributed upon his death. The trust also contains a default provision for items not listed in the written direction.

3. Because the written direction is not part of the Will, it isn’t subject to the execution formalities of a Will. The above written direction can be changed as often as the client wishes, by the client (so no attorney involvement is needed) — it’s really just a note, left with the client’s other important papers.

Planning for Your Future Presentation

Here is a presentation that I give to different groups and organizations.  It covers the contents of a proper estate plan.

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dgjs8z3d_05sg8jfvf