Legacy & Transition Planning
ESTATE AND LEGACY CARE PLANNING
The preconceived, and overly simple, idea of estate planning is deciding who gets what. A proper and much more useful estate plan is so much more. A proper estate and legacy plan should
- Protect your family’s finances for yourself and the next generation
- Provide support when dealing with the loss of a loved one
- Evaluate sources of income for your survivors to assure that adequate income is available.
- Evaluate the sources of income available to your family in the event of a long-term disability; explore additional income sources.
- Prepare you and your family should one of you become ill and unable to care for yourself, either in the short-term or for much longer.
- Clarify your desires should you need extended care such as who you want to help make decisions, where to stay, and who should provide care, for example
- Evaluate your current financial position, including income, investments, and insurance to create an overall care strategy that could ease the burden on you and your loved ones
- Determine the most economical and tax efficient way of covering long-term care expenses and analyze any existing policies to confirm they provide the coverage you expect
- Evaluate any need for life insurance and analyze existing policies to confirm they provide the coverage expected and whether alternative solutions may provide better benefits
- Evaluate wills and estate distribution plan for their ability to achieve your distribution goals
- Ensure the titling of your assets and beneficiary designations do not conflict with your stated goals.
- Organize and create an easy retrieval system for all your estate documents, including insurance policies and assets, so they can be quickly referenced or updated and your designated family can find them
- Review, propose, and implement strategies for charitable giving
- Include a review of possible tax consequences and potential ways to mitigate these for you beneficiaries
- Guide you through a process to preserve what you want to leave behind beyond money, such as life lessons, dreams for your children, and cherished family memories.
- Communicate these plans and decisions to family and those you trust