An estate plan is one of the best ways to help assure that your assets will be handled as you intended after your passing. The estate planning process typically involves working with your financial, tax and legal advisors and may lead to:

• Creating a will, trusts and various other related legal instruments
• Purchasing one or more types of life insurance or investment solutions
• Developing a strategy for making lifetime gifts.

In developing a plan, the following should be considered: What will happen to your assets? How and when do you want your heirs to inherit your assets? Who do you want to manage your estate? And who will be your executor and your trustee?

You must also consider your anticipated estate tax liability and whether or not your spouse is able to manage money.

Do you need to provide for your children—and what about their educations?
How do you want to manage your retirement accounts?

Identifying Appropriate Strategies
Your financial advisor can help you assemble a team of professionals, including legal and tax advisors, to work with you, if you so choose. Together with these advisors, your financial advisor may help determine which strategies and investment solutions are most appropriate for you. You’ll also want to discuss the educational needs of your children and grandchildren.
Your financial advisor will explain the different kinds of wills and trust instruments you will need.
There are a variety of vehicles and services that can be utilized to implement your estate planning strategies.

Life Insurance
Life insurance can play an integral part in providing for your family. It can be used to address many needs, including:

• Income replacement
• Estate liquidity (to help pay any estate taxes or other liabilities that may be due, either by your estate or your beneficiaries)
• Business succession planning.

Personal Trust Services
As part of a comprehensive estate plan, a personal trust can help you preserve your wealth during your lifetime. And, in the tragic event of your passing or disability, a personal trust usually provides for the ongoing management of your assets. It can also facilitate the transfer of assets to your loved ones or to charity, and may help to protect your wealth for several generations.

Consider a Lifetime Giving Strategy
You may also want to consider adopting a lifetime giving strategy designed to reduce your taxable estate. There are a number of ways in which assets can be ‘gifted’ to loved ones during your lifetime without incurring any federal gift tax.

The Importance of Titling Your Assets Correctly
It’s important to make certain that your assets are titled correctly so they pass to your heirs as you intend. Review all of your beneficiary designations so they are up-to-date and consistent with the provisions outlined in your will. While your will may state your intentions, the ownership of your assets may be legally dictated by how they are titled.

Adapting Your Current Estate Plan to Tax Law Changes
In June 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act was signed into law, making substantial changes to the transfer tax system (estate, gift and Generation Skipping Transfer Tax), which create many estate planning challenges and opportunities.

Some of these changes may dramatically impact a pre-existing estate plan and alter the amounts that pass to different beneficiaries.

Review Your Strategy
Your needs and goals may be very different tomorrow than they are today. That's why it is important to meet with your financial advisor, at least annually, to review your strategy and make adjustments when necessary. Your financial advisor, in conjunction with your other advisors, can help you to address new needs as they arise.

Written by: Ari Baum