Money Lesson 23 - Estate Planing

Through our lives, we spend so much time worrying about making a decent living. Questions like, "Will we have enough for a new house? Can I afford that new car? Can I take that trip I've always wanted to take?"

But the years pass. You've built up an estate, and achieved success. Your focus starts shifting away from taking care of yourself, to ensuring your loved ones are cared for after you're gone. That's what estate planning is all about.

Some traditional methods of estate planning include:

Wills
Living Trusts
Durable/Medical Power of Attorney

An estate plan has several elements.

They include: a will, assignment of power of attorney and a living will or health-care proxy (medical power of attorney). For some people, a trust may also make sense. When putting together a plan, you must be mindful of both federal and state laws governing estates.

Get Started Your Estate Planning

Your investment, retirement savings, insurances policies, real estate and business interests are all your assets. In your process of estate planning, ask yourself these questions:

Whom do you want to inherit your assets if ever you are incapacitated?
Whom do you want to make the medical decisions on your behalf when you are unable to make them yourself?
Whom do you want handling your financial affairs when the time comes?

All you answers need to write into a black & white document, called WILL.

Everyone Needs A Will

A will is a legal document that tells the world exactly what you want and where you want you assets distributed when you die. You also can name the guardians for your children. Don’t die without a will, it can be costly to your heirs and leaves you no say over who gets your assets. Even if you have a trust, you still need a will to take care of any holdings outside of that trust when you die.

Estate Taxes

One of the biggest issues you need to worry about are estate taxes. For starters, Uncle Sam starts collecting gift taxes at the $1 million level. Married couples with estates over $4 million are subject to estate taxes that soar up to 46%... and if you wish to leave money to grandchildren, the estate taxes can reach as high as 73%!

Divorce Will Impact Your Estate Planning Too!

Divorce is also a serious issue in the course of designing an effective estate plan. 11 in 20 marriages (55%) end in divorce. In many affluent families, divorcing spouses of children end up with half of the assets that were intended for the child. That scenario could be prevented with effective wealth transfer planning.

There are two easy ways to give gifts tax-free and reduce your estate

You may give up to $11,000 a year to an individual (or $22,000 if you're married and giving the gift with your spouse). You may also pay an unlimited amount of medical and education bills for someone if you pay the expenses directly to the institutions where they were incurred.

There are ways to give charitable gifts that keep on giving.

If you donate to a charitable gift fund or community foundation, your investment grows tax-free and you can select the charities to which contributions are given both before and after you die.

No matter what your goals are, estate planning is a must!

Money Lessons


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