Throughout your life, you’ve worked hard to accumulate assets, build wealth and provide for your family. You built a comfortable life full of shared memories and experiences; this is your legacy and your estate.
Providing for and protecting your loved ones is never more critical than when you aren’t there to do so. That is why developing an estate plan can be one of the best things you ever do for them.
A comprehensive estate plan can help you:
- Preserve and protect your wealth.
- Control who receives your assets.
- Ensure that your wishes are carried out.
- Reduce the tax burden on your heirs and family.
- Provide for continuation of your business.
Some questions to consider when developing your estate plan might include:
- Do you have minor children?
- When was your will reviewed?
- Do you have a living will or health care Power of Attorney?
- Do you have a Power of Attorney for general matters?
- What is your total net worth, including life insurance?
- Do you plan to gift any of your assets to family members or to a charity?
These are just a sampling of the many questions to consider when planning for the transfer of your wealth, assets, and estate after you’re gone.
One of the most important aspects of estate planning is keeping your plan up-to-date. It is important to regularly review and adjust your plan to provide for any changes in state and federal estate tax rates, wealth transfer opportunities, and your financial and family status, including marriage, divorce, births, deaths, illnesses, retirement, relocations, and more.
The Power of Planning
With complex and ever-changing tax laws, you need the trusted partnership found in working with us.
Working with your estate planning experts, we can help you to establish a personalized, customized plan designed to protect and preserve your assets for the people, causes, and/or charities in your life who matter most.
Estate planning involves creating a will or trust, maintaining proper insurance, setting up gift-giving guidelines, reducing eventual tax implications, and more. The sooner you design and implement your estate plan, the sooner you can be at ease knowing that your loved ones will be provided for as you intend.
How it Works
We, along with our experienced financial planning professionals, can tailor a plan to your specific needs that considers these factors and options which may impact the transfer of your wealth:
- Your estate value and potential estate taxes.
- Available alternatives to paying federal and state death taxes.
- The use of various transfer techniques including life insurance, trusts, and gifting.
- Comparisons of the benefits and limitations of various planning tools.
- Review or guidance in the drafting of your will, trust, and other documents to determine if they will accomplish your goals.
We can collaborate with your attorneys, accountants, trust officers, and any other advisors in your network to ensure that your estate plan is fully prepared and properly managed.
