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Ten Things Estate Planning Can Do For You

1. Provide for your immediate family. If you have children under eighteen, you should have a will nominating a personal guardian for the children in case both parents should die before they grow up. Otherwise, a court will decide, without your input, where your kids will live and who will make important decisions about their money, education and way of life.
2. Provide for other relatives who need help and guidance. If you set forth your desires and wishes prior to your death it will assist those you leave behind in making difficult decisions.
3. Get your property to beneficiaries quickly. The probate process is simplified and usually less expensive when a person dies with a will or trust that has been established during his or her lifetime.
4. Plan for incapacity. You can also plan for mental or physical incapacity. Living wills and durable powers of attorney enable you to decide in advance about life support and pick someone to make decisions for you about medical treatment.
5. Minimize expenses. Everyone wants to keep the cost of transferring property to beneficiaries as low as possible, thus leaving more money for the beneficiaries. Good estate planning can reduce these after death expenses significantly.
6. Choose personal representatives and trustees for your estate. Your personal representative will be responsible for carrying out the directions you express in your will. A trustee carries out the directions contained in a trust. Choosing a competent personal representative and trustee and giving them clear directions is essential to your estate plan.
7. Ease the strain on your family. By setting forth your wishes and desires prior to your death many of the difficult decisions your surviving family may face have already been made by you.
8. Help a favorite cause. Your estate plan can help support religious, educational, or other charitable causes, either during your lifetime or upon your death.
9. Reduce taxes on your estate. Every dollar your estate has to pay in estate or inheritance taxes is a dollar that your beneficiaries won't get. A good estate plan can give the maximum allowed by law to your beneficiaries.
10. Make sure your business goes on smoothly. If you have a business you can provide for an orderly succession and continuation of its affairs by spelling our what will happen to your interest in the business.

Property That Does Not Pass Via a Will

1. Property held in joint tenancy.
2. Life insurance payable to a named beneficiary.
3. Property held in a trust.
4. Retirement plans payable to named beneficiaries, including IRAs, Keogh accounts and pensions.
5. Totten trusts (a trust arrangement on a bank account payable to a named beneficiary at death) or pay-on-death bank accounts payable to a named beneficiary.
6. Deeds in which the deceased held only a life estate, with the property going after death to a named beneficiary.
7. Gifts made in contemplation of death.

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Lakewood, Colorado 80228
Phone: (303) 984-9900
Fax: (866)-399-3560
Email: linda@lindasommersgreen.com

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