Estate Planning
Estate Planning, put simply, is the sum of all the necessary steps that you need to take to ensure that your heirs are provided for in the best possible way, including lifetime planning as well as disposition of property at death. An estate plan aims to preserve the maximum amount of wealth possible for the intended beneficiaries and flexibility for the individual prior to death. A major concern for drafters of estate plans is federal and state tax law.
An estate is the total property, real and personal, owned by an individual prior to distribution through a trust or will. Real property is real estate and personal property includes everything else, for example cars, household items, and bank accounts. Estate planning distributes the real and personal property to an individual's heirs.
Wills and trusts are common ways in which individuals dispose of their wealth. Trusts, unlike wills, have the benefit of avoiding probate, a lengthy and costly legal process that oversees the transfer of assets. Sometimes, though, it will be useful to make gifts during your life, in order to minimize taxes. The Federal Gift Tax exempts certain levels of lifetime gifts.
We take the time to understand the estate planning goals of each and every client. We listen to your goals, take the time to understand your situation, and work hard to create an estate plan that helps you realize your estate planning goals. Some of the common tasks we perform are:
Healthcare Directive
Instructions given by individuals specifying what actions should be taken for their health in the event that they are no longer able to make decisions due to illness or incapacity, including whether you desire artifical nutrition and hydration.
Irrevocable Trust
An irrevocable trust is one in which the terms of the trust cannot be amended or revised until the terms or purposes of the trust have been completed. Although in rare cases, a court may change the terms of the trust due to unexpected changes in circumstances that make the trust uneconomical or unwieldy to administer, under normal circumstances an irrevocable trust may not be changed by the trustee or the beneficiaries of the trust.
Last Will & Testament
A legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death.
Revocable Trust
A trust of this kind may be amended, altered or revoked by its creator at any time, provided the creator is not mentally incapacitated. Revocable trusts are becoming increasingly common in the US as a substitute for a will to minimize administrative costs associated with probate and to provide centralized administration of a person's final affairs after death.