Throughout the years, following the loss of my father estate planning has been a very important part of the council and advice that I offer.
Our goal is to protect assets while our client is alive and a pass all of those assets in any form to the people in things that our client desires for their estate to go to when they pass away from this life.
There are certain documents that every professional should have in place.
We believe that a current last Will in testament is critical. Our version of current is that your last willing investment is reviewed every 36 months.
We strongly encourage all of our clients to have a durable power of attorney and an advance health directive in place. Once these documents are in place, we strongly recommend that our clients discuss with their adult children what assets they have, and what form these assets are held in and a general idea of how those assets are to be distributed upon the passing of the parents.
We are a big proponent of having a proper trust in place. The most simple trust that will do. The job is what we recommend. We like to have an irrevocable life insurance trust also referred to as an ILIT. The simple document removes life insurance from the insured personal ownership. Depending on how complicated a client’s assets are there are times where it is recommended to have a more complicated trust. It is also important to decide what state your trust should be domicile in.
End of life care, distributions of assets, and making certain that our clients do not run out of money before passing are some of the key elements to our strategies in estate planning.
We would love the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your planning. If you would like to schedule an appointment, please click the consultation button and let’s set up a 30 minute call at your convenience.