ELDER LAW, WEALTH PRESERVATION STRATEGIES, ESTATE, TAX AND CHARITABLE PLANNING
Home Publications Estate Planning - Making Informed Choices Our LifeChoices Maintenance Program Links About Us Contact Us	Estate Planning - Making Informed Choice WHAT IS PROPER ESTATE PLANNING? Proper estate planning allows you to plan for yourself and your loved ones without giving up control of your affairs. Your estate plan should allow you to plan for the possibility of your own disability. It should give what you own to whom you want to receive it, the way you want them to receive it, and when you want them to receive it. Your estate plan should save every tax dollar, professional fee and court cost that are legally possible to save. And if you have a taxable estate, why let the IRS do "involuntary philanthropy" with your money, when with proper planning, you can do "voluntary philanthropy" to loved ones or charities of your choice! WHO NEEDS ESTATE PLANNING? Everyone. Certainly the older you get, the more you start thinking about how to transfer your assets to your grown children or others. But families with young children need to do estate planning. So do people who have children from a previous marriage, or those who are in unmarried or other alternative lifestyle relationships. Single adults - young or old - need to plan as well. Estate planning is not just for "wealthy" people. ESTATE PLANNING IS MORE THAN DEATH PLANNING! Like one's life, estate planning is a work-in-progress. It is not just documents, drafted to give away assets at death, then hidden away in the safe deposit box for no further review. Estate planning includes careful disability planning so that if you should become disabled, your successor trustee and/or agent can continue the work on your plan to save estate taxes, or do disability planning to preserve your assets for your care and the legacy you wish to leave to others. However, your estate plan will not be worth the money spent on designing it, unless you are committed to a plan for its regular review and updating to match the financial or personal changes in your life or the lives of your loved ones, as well as the changes in the law. As well, to meet the goals and objectives of your estate plan, it is necessary to educate your successor trustees and/or agents, who will take over on your death, or earlier if you are disabled. WHY SUCH EMPHASIS ON DISABILITY PLANNING? Remember Groucho Marx. He had a Will. But he didn't plan for incapacity. The end of his life became a public circus. The Court declared him incompetent, and his companion and family members battled for control over his care - and his money. He lost his privacy in a costly court battle. If he had planned in advance, he would have not lost control over the decisions about who should manage his finances and determine his medical treatment, how and for whom his money should be used during his disability, and how he should be cared for if disabled.
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