Estate Planning is the legal specialty which deals with the creation, protection, preservation, management and distribution of the assets in your estate. (Your estate is everything you own, including real estate, securities, cash, insurance policies, motorized and unmotorized vehicles and all household belongings.) The general objectives of estate planning are to enable you to control how your assets are managed and distributed during your lifetime and after your death, to minimize taxes and transfer fees, and to preserve the maximum value and utility of your estate for you and your loved ones.
In order to accomplish these general objectives of estate planning, the specific goals are:
DURING YOUR LIFE
- To minimize income taxes and thereby maximize the growth of the estate;
- To protect the home and other assets from lawsuits;
- To protect from the unexpected and to provide management of the estate and care for the owner if he or she becomes disabled;
- To avoid conservatorship court proceedings in the event the owner of the estate becomes mentally incompetent or physically incapacitated.
AFTER DEATH
- To minimize or legally avoid the federal estate tax;
- To avoid subjecting the estate to the expenses involved in guardianship court proceedings in the event any of the beneficiaries happen to be under the age of legal majority;
- Arrange the estate to protect the kids’ inheritance from lawsuits and from divorcing spouses;
- To avoid probate court proceedings upon the death of the owner of the estate;
You can accomplish the general objectives and specific goals of estate planning by creating a living trust that suits your needs.
What is a Living Trust?
A living trust is a private written agreement in which a husband and wife, or a single person, gives the legal authority to each other, to himself or herself, or to another trusted individual or corporate Trustee, to manage assets, to make financial and legal decisions in the event of a disability, and to transfer assets at death without going to court. The living trusts generally used for family estate planning may be amended in any written form, at any time by the person or persons who created the trust. A revocable trust may be terminated at any time in any written form by the person or persons who created it. A living trust is not subject to public court administration and, therefore, if you use a living trust, none of your assets which have been properly transferred into the trust or any of the details of the disposition of the trust assets are made a matter of public record.
Trusts are designed specifically to address problems such as: What happens if you become physically or mentally disabled? What happens if you die in an accident? What if, when you pass away, your children are not old enough or mature enough to handle your estate responsibly? Trusts and their supporting documents are prepared to make sure that your wishes will be complied with even if you become unable to communicate, and after your death. We have experience creating trust documents that specify delayed or gradual distribution of trust funds. Life estate trust provisions can spread out an inheritance over the course of a beneficiary’s lifetime and prevent the loss of the inheritance to lawsuits and divorces. Special Needs Trusts provide for disabled beneficiaries without disqualifying disabled beneficiaries from receiving public benefits. A trust can provide for your beneficiaries as you see fit and can be easily amended to incorporate any new needs that may arise in the future.
In the event you become incapacitated or disabled during your lifetime, the trust and supporting documents such as the Financial & Health Care Powers of Attorney will allow the individuals you have named to make decisions for you as is necessary without court involvement. These documents, among others such as the Advance Health Care Directive that we will prepare for you, set forth your wishes as to how and where you wish to be cared for, under what conditions you may or may not want life-sustaining treatments, your preferences on pain mediation and any additional health care wishes you would like to state.