 It is National Estate Planning Week! (ok so we had to declare it for ourselves!) What is estate planning and what are the basics you ask? Why is it important? Estate planning is a process utilizing the advice of trusted advisers to assist you with decisions about how to protect and distribute your assets (including your business if you own one) when you pass away, who should pay your bills and take care of your monetary affairs for you in the event that you are living but unable to take care of them yourself, and also who should make medical decisions for you based upon your wishes in the event that you are injured but cannot communicate your desires clearly. That is just scratching the surface! You can determine who should be the guardian of your children and manage their money, establish trusts for children, for charities, or both. Using life insurance and other types of insurance and risk management tools you can leverage the assets you have and make them more productive and tax efficient for yourself during your lifetime and for your family after you are no longer able or available to support them yourself. You can handpick the individuals who will make decisions about your bills and take care of your family if you are unable and tell them how you wish to be taken care of in medical and end of life situations in the event that you cannot express your desires at the time those issues arise. If you are a business owner, estate planning can help you minimize exposure to current income taxes and at the same time accomplish some long term goals for you and your family, taking the time to establish an estate plan can help you and your partners decide how to exit the business gracefully, to support one another at a time of death or disability, can help you with your succession planning and even help you with retirement goals. Estate Planning can also help you to spread revenue around using your current assets so that you pay tax at lower rates and also use as many business deductions as possible at the same time. Important questions get discovered, discussed and answered in the estate planning process whether you are planning for just yourself, you and and your family or you, your family,and your business as well. Having a plan means that you have thoughtfully considered the consequences of your being unable to fulfill a role that you are currently fulfilling and making sure that your family is taken care of just the same. Estate planning can assist you in passing on your values as well as your assets to the next and succeeding generations and more. There are a multitude of tools to fit any situation that allow you to accomplish both monetary and non-monetary goals. Please contact me at Nina@Stillmanllc.com if you have further questions about how to accomplish your goals! |
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