Helping People Plan Estates for Over 30 Years
Earlier this year, NBA team owner Gail Miller made headlines when she announced that she was effectively no longer the owner of the Utah Jazz or the Vivint Smart Home Arena. These assets, she said, were being placed into a family trust, therefore raising interest in an estate planning tool previously known only to the very wealthy-–the dynasty trust.
There’s no one-size-fits-all estate plan, but any robust one will protect your privacy, free you from court interference, help you protect and manage your assets, save you money on taxes, and enable you to name the people you trust the most to act on your behalf.
While plenty of estate planning deals with the distribution of assets after death, it is also about having a plan in place to deal with what happens if you become incapacitated. An incapacity plan covers many of those same estate planning benefits like privacy, freedom, and control, but they apply while you’re still living — and no estate plan is truly comprehensive without one.Continue Reading…
Incapacity planning keeps money under management, provides an opportunity for product sales, and protects your clients. It’s a win/win because estate planning is not just having a plan in place to deal with a client’s death; it’s also about having a plan in place to deal with what happens if a client becomes incapacitated (a tragically common circumstance given the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive impairment ailments).
There are many moving parts that need to be considered in incapacity planning. Here are a few highlights:Continue Reading…
As spring break swiftly approaches, the parents of young adults experience a mixed bag of emotions.
It can be exciting to see your children branching out and becoming successful adults in their own right — a time full of hard work and self-discovery that hopefully lays the groundwork for a fulfilling career in the coming years.
But, it can also be a time of anxiety for some parents. We all want to know that we are doing absolutely everything we can to make sure our kids stay safe, healthy, and secure so they can pursue their dreams to the fullest.
On January 24, 2017, the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2017, or H.R. 631, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives by South Dakota congresswoman Kristi Noem. If passed, H.R. 631 would completely repeal the federal estate tax. A separate companion bill put before the Senate by South Dakota senator John Thune, S. 205, would also repeal the generation-skipping transfer tax (GSTT). Could this mean the end of estate and GSTT taxes?
A Team of Coordinated Professionals Is Your Clients’ Best Bet
Picture a symphony’s worth of classical musicians all trying to play a piece in perfect harmony, but they can’t see one another. Each of them also has slightly different sheet music. It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to know it’s not going to sound pretty.
That’s what it’s like for clients whose various advisors don’t communicate. Of course, an individual’s wealth management strategy doesn’t come from just one part of their approach, but rather a comprehensive and holistic combination of the efforts of several professionals.
While the term fiduciary is a legal term with a long history, it very generally means someone who is legally obligated to act in another person’s best interests. Trustees, executors, and agents are all examples of fiduciaries. When you pick trustees, executors, and agents in your estate plan, you’re picking one or more people to make decisions in your and your beneficiaries’ best interests and in accordance with the instructions you leave. Luckily, understanding the basics of what each of these terms means and what to consider when making your choices can make your estate plan work far better.
Most financially savvy individuals begin planning their estate when they’re in peak mental shape. The idea that this might change at some point in the distant future is an unpleasant one, and they would rather go about their estate planning as if they’ll be as sharp as a tack late into their golden years. Unfortunately, this common approach of ignoring a potential problem and hoping it simply won’t happen can leave a giant hole in your estate plan. Read on to find out that
this common hole can be more easily filled than you might think.
Every one of us receives and passes on an inheritance. The inheritance may not be an accumulation of earthly possessions or acquired riches, but whether we realize it or not, our choices, words, actions, and values will impact someone and form the heritage we hand down.
— Ben Hardesty
Successful estate planning is about far more than simply passing your wealth to the next generation— it’s also about passing on your values. No matter which financial or legal structures you choose to contain and manage your assets, these instruments only preserve your wealth until it reaches the hands of your beneficiaries. What happens then? Your values enabled you to accumulate wealth and persevere in spite of obstacles and long odds. If your children and grandchildren don’t share and cherish those values, they could lose their inheritance as quickly as they received it.
But our values can be hard to capture in language. They seem second nature to us only because we live them every day. Here’s an exercise to help you identify your (perhaps) rarely-spoken moral code and communicate it to the next generation.
As Valentine’s Day brings heart-shaped chocolate boxes and roses by the dozen into your imagination, seize the moment to learn about the drawbacks of I love you wills and introduce yourself to the estate planning move that’s actually going to ensure you do well by your loved ones: a lifetime beneficiary trust.
No aspect of estate planning brings out as much emotional decision-making as the division of assets. Many people think, I love you, so I’ll leave you everything. In order to understand why I love you wills are, contrary to their name, not the most caring of estate planning gestures, it’s important to understand the risks of I love you wills.Continue Reading…
