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- Estate Planning Basics
- Fundamental questions
- Will or living trust?
- Other facts about estate settlement
- Determining potential estate taxes
- Estate Tax Saving Strategies
- The marital deduction
- Life Insurance
- Annual gifting
- Charitable contributions
- Strategies for family-owned businesses
- Special strategies for special situations
- Community property issues
- Implementing and Updating Your Plan
- Where do you go from here?
- Estate planning worksheet
- Planning Levels Fee Schedule
WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?
Remember, estate planning is about much more than reducing your estate taxes; it’s about ensuring your family is provided for, your business can continue and your charitable goals are achieved. So even if the estate tax is permanently repealed, you will want to have an up-to-date plan in place.
To this end, use the estate planning checklist on the next page to identify areas where you need more information or assistance. Or jot down a few notes about things you want to look at more closely and discuss with a professional advisor. It may be easy for you to put off developing a detailed estate plan — or updating it in light of changes in tax law or your situation. But if you do, much of your estate could go to Uncle Sam — and this could be very hard on your family.
- Planning tip 9
- 4 More Reasons To Update Your Estate Plan
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- Family changes. Marriages, divorces, births, adoptions and deaths can all lead to the need for estate plan modifications.
- Increases in income and net worth. What may have been an appropriate estate plan when your income and net worth were much lower may no longer be effective today.
- Geographic moves. Different states have different estate planning regulations. Any time you move from one state to another, you should review your estate plan.
- New health-related conditions. A child may develop special needs due to physical or mental limitations, or a surviving spouse's ability to earn a living may change because of a disability. Such circumstances often require an estate plan update.
So please call us with any questions you have about the strategies represented here or how they can help you minimize your estate tax liability. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your situation and show how we can help you develop and implement an estate plan that preserves for your heirs what it took you a lifetime to build.
If you have any questions about the topics covered in this guide, or if you want more information on how they relate to you, please fill out this worksheet and mail or fax it to us. We will be happy to help you with these or any other questions you may have about your estate planning strategies.