Basic Estate Plan

Estate planning gives clear and concise instructions to your loved ones and attending physicians. It ensures a secure future for your loved ones and/or support of your chosen charitable organizations. It preserves your wealth and protects your assets - both personal and business. Estate planning reduces the costs associated with Guardianship and probate, preserving available tax exemptions. When appropriate, it provides an umbrella of wealth protection for your surviving spouse, children and grandchildren. It is an ongoing process that allows you to change, add and cancel details at will.

A basic estate plan typically consists of a Revocable Living Trust, a Pour-Over Will, a Durable Power of Attorney, a Health Surrogate, and a Living Will.

Revocable Living Trust

A Revocable Living Trust is created to manage assets for a loved one both during and after your lifetime. Such trusts do not go through probate court, transferring assets seamlessly with minimal effect from estate and administrative taxes, fees and regulations - both state and federal. A Revocable Living Trust is one of the best methods for protecting assets for your heirs.

The advantages of a Revocable Living Trust are:

• You eliminate the high costs associated with probating a Last Will and Testament;
  
  
• Assets are distributed more quickly, since probate proceedings may take from two months to two years to complete;
  
  
• Your affairs remain private, since probate proceedings are a public process and anyone can view your Last Will and Testament - giving the public details of what assets you left and to whom, what heirs were left out, and anything else written in your Will;
  
  
• Your wishes are more difficult to contest by disgruntled heirs; and
  
  
• There is no estate tax return to be filed at your death, since you can possess an estate valued at $1.2 million in a Trust without owing estate taxes.

With a Revocable Living Trust, you continue to control the assets or can name someone else to manage them. Should you become incapacitated, your alternate trustee takes over the asset management, eliminating the need and cost for a court appointed conservator. Additionally, as long as you are legally competent, you can cancel the Trust or change its terms at any time.

A Revocable Living Trust is valid in all states within the United States, regardless in which state it was created. This means that (unlike a Last Will and Testament) if you move to another state, you are not required to record the Trust in the new state of domicile, and your chosen trustees and beneficiaries may live out of state.

Pour-Over Will

A "pour-over" Will is a Last Will and Testament that serves as a backup for the Revocable Living Trust. At death, it disposes of personal effects of nominal value, while all other assets are managed by the Trust. If any valuable assets were not properly retitled to the Trust, the pour-over Will catches them without going through probate.

Durable Power of Attorney

This document gives legal authority to a person to handle your business matters, banking, real estate, financial matters, and so on in the event you are incapacitated and unable to handle your own affairs. You decide how much power the individual is given, though broad power is the norm. If not specified as durable, a power of attorney is automatically cancelled if you become incapacitated. Without a Durable Power of Attorney and you become incapacitated, a relative must ask a court to give them Guardianship that is not guaranteed. A total stranger could be appointed as your Guardian by the court.

Healthcare Surrogate

This is your chosen representative, who will make your healthcare decisions (not withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging procedures) in case you are incapacitated and in a medical emergency. Your representative may authorize surgery, transportation to other medical facilities, and has the ability to apply for benefits for you. A Healthcare Surrogate document ensures the "right" person is making such vital decisions for you.

Living Will

A Living Will manages your end-of-life extended medical treatment should you become incapacitated. It includes pain management and whether to withhold or withdraw food and water. Also called a Healthcare Directive, Death with Dignity Statement, and Right-to-Die Declaration, a Living Will creates a contract between you and your attending physician, who must comply with the instructions or transfer you to a facility that will. A Living Will does not just manage the medical care you do not want, but it also ensures you get all available medical treatment you DO want.

« Return to Estate Planning