ESTATE PLANNING

For most of us, planning for the distribution of our financial resources and personal property can be a difficult and emotionally charged issue. However, with a CFP® and CPA financial planner’s professional and comprehensive approach to estate planning, you can be assured that your wishes will be honored, including:

There are many financial planning elements to consider as you age, and it is important to consider these things before it’s too late. Having a plan in place for who will handle your financial affairs should you suffer cognitive decline is critical.  Making sure your spouse and/or family understands your plans will help reduce future family conflicts and ensure your wishes are considered.

The decisions you make each year with your personal finances will have a lasting impact.  We can help you in the areas of:

  • Examine a flowchart of your current estate plan to visualize what would happen to each of your assets and how the current estate tax law will impact you. 

  • Be sure that your estate planning documents are up to date – not just your will, but also your power of attorney, health care documents, and any trust agreements – and that the beneficiary designations are in line with your desires and give you the flexibility to plan for tomorrow’s potential changing environment.  If you have recently been through a significant life event such as marriage, divorce or the death of a spouse, this is especially important right now.

  • Developing a strategy that fulfills your goals while preserving assets for the next generation, reducing estate-tax liability and providing for sufficient  liquidity.

  • Extensive experience with the creation of the “stretch IRA” concept which can be shown to be the most critical structure of estate plans today.  With proper planning and use of disclaimers, coordination of beneficiary documents and proper review of plan documents to allow the “stretch,” I have found this to be an often overlooked strategy by IRA owners.

  • We are huge fans of “filling up” tax brackets in the right circumstances to create more tax efficiencies through the use of trusts, setting up charitable foundations, simple tax planning, etc. to maximize deductions.  Most clients we prepare a 10 year income tax projection to show clients of tax savings through the years.

  • Explaining methods of property transfers, estate-tax rules, the impact of the most current estate-planning legislation and possible future changes in rules and regulations.

  • Collaborating with other team members — attorneys, investment advisers, appraisers and insurance brokers, among others — to ensure that every issue is properly addressed by the appropriate.