Downs Law Firm, P.C.
You spend a lifetime building your business, so it’s crucial to have a game plan when it’s time to leave. Being prepared will help optimize the transition from a financial and tax perspective.
When you set up your estate plan it is important to coordinate the legal planning documents that you or you and your attorney create with the document provided by your retirement account custodian and/or your life insurance carrier called a ‘Designation of Beneficiary.’
It is quite a tragedy when a loved one passes away. You may want to remember them by keeping sentimental objects from their home, or perhaps they wanted you to inherit a specific item.
Vacation homes may also comprise a significant portion of the family’s wealth. Therefore, it’s understandable that homeowners want to pass their properties and family traditions to future generations.
A competent elder law or estate attorney can keep the estate process on track, and knows of provisions like family allowances, benefits to prepaying inheritance tax, even where the tax return is not yet complete and a listing of itemized deductions.
This is an important question to ask, because the answer could tell you whether you need to worry about estate taxes, beneficiary issues or probate concerns.
Would your loved ones have necessary access to your bank accounts after you die to help carry out your last wishes and handle arrangements?
Whatever the reason, whether your life is a bed of roses or a getting-worse-nightmare, there are things you can do now to insure what you leave will go to who you want. And when. And in what portion or portions.
In fact, many couples with no children mistakenly believe that they are less likely to need a last will and testament than couples with children.
This legal document can also be beneficial in many situations, such as if you want to leave an inheritance to someone but aren’t sure they will use the gift wisely.
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