Life insurance is a unique asset used to accomplish any of the following: The creation of an estate where circumstances have kept the estate owner from accumulating sufficient assets to care for his loved ones in the event of a premature death. To protect a business value due to the loss of key employees. For…
Although estate planning documents may be signed, the estate planning process is not complete until asset titles are changed so that they can be controlled by those documents. The act of retitling assets is called funding. So, when the estate planning attorney or your financial advisor speaks of funding your trust, for example, he or…
Did you ever consider that you might want to do “special needs” planning even if you don’t have any special needs children or grandchildren? Can you imagine how one of your children could come to have special needs after you’re gone? One of our colleagues relates this story. Sid and Elaine had three children, and…
Bill Johnson is a typical business owner and entrepreneur. He’s a visionary and a big-picture thinker. He’s a risk-taker, but his risks are calculated and he’s wise in the ways of business. Bill’s day is filled with the typical challenges of a small business owner: finding new customers, serving current customers, dealing with employees, keeping…
For years there has been talk about doing away with the Federal estate tax. So far, this year’s most popular question from clients is, now that the estate tax is gone, do we still need to do estate planning? The short answer is that if estate planning was only about the tax, then estate planning…
For years there has been talk about doing away with the Federal estate tax. The tax bill, passed in the closing days of 2017, partially achieved that goal for most American taxpayers. The new law increases the amount that a single person can pass during life or at death to $10M. This amount is to…
You’re selling your business. What should you watch out for? As our population ages, more and more business owners are looking to sell their business. Some want to cash out and retire. Others want to bring in employees as owners and stay involved in the business. And others would like to transfer the business to…
Last month we looked at guardianship, the first of two issues that affect planning for minor children. This month we will look at some ideas for leaving money to minor children. We start with the idea that minors cannot really own investments outright. As such, dealing with gifts of sizeable amounts of money, investments, and…
As a parent, planning and caring for the well-being of our children takes priority over most things in life. Without question, we want to be sure should anything happen to us, our minor children will be well looked after and that money or property we leave for them will be used wisely for their care….
When you think of estate planning you probably think of your home, cars, investments, real estate, personal possessions, bank accounts, and so on. For the most part, tangible items you can touch and hold. But what about your digital assets? Digital assets include: Online accounts Images, videos, photos, text Email accounts Investment accounts with online…