Estate Planning
More than a ’simple will’
Why bother with estate planning? After all, you’ve titled your house and the bank accounts in the beneficiary’s name and have all the paperwork in place with your life insurance agent. You may think your spouse will get everything anyway ‘by law.’ In fact, so-and-so and their spouse went to the lawyer down the street and got a ’simple will’ for a couple hundred bucks, and the guy at work grabbed some trust forms from the Internet or local bank and did it himself online. Probably saved a fortune in attorneys’ fees, right?
Maybe….but we wouldn’t bet on it. Failed estate plans not only cost your heirs a tremendous amount of hassle and out-of-pocket expenses to clean up, but the costs skyrocket once you see omissions regarding taxes. Worse yet, the planning process is bypassed entirely, ignoring all the options that can help provide you financial security in your retirement years, and foregoing tremendous tax savings to your estate. If you are reading this and are married in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Marital Property Act cannot be ignored, especially for families with children from other marriages.
Perhaps most troubling is that your heirs are left to guess as to what you wanted for your estate. Which version of your wishes are your friends and family to believe? In estate planning, the mantra ‘get it in writing’ has never been more paramount.
Parents – married or unmarried: What paperwork do you have in place to take care of the children if something happens to you and the other parent? Who do you trust to make important life decisions for them? Have you considered a spendthrift trust to defer the use of funds until they are older? Are you aware of the tax benefits of an Education Savings Account (CESA) or a 529?
Step Families: Do you realize that under the intestacy laws of Wisconsin that all property does not automatically divest to the step parent if the natural parent dies? The intestate statutes do not protect step families on equal footing with ‘natural’ families.
Grandparents: What is the best way to balance your own financial needs while passing along wealth to your grandchildren? One plan does not fit everyone. Learn about tax-free transfers and the generation-skipping tax exemption. There are many creative ways to allocate dividends and utilize the CESA with the 529 to maximize gift allocation while reducing, or eliminating taxes. Also learn how valuable life insurance can be in your estate plan, and for providing long term health care for yourself.
Singles, Domestic Partners, Nontraditional Families: The best – and sometimes only way – to pass your assets to loved ones outside of the ‘traditional’ family model anticipated by the laws, is to utilize an estate plan. Perhaps the intestacy laws don’t make sense for your situation, for example, you’re unmarried and in graduate school, have no children and your parents are doing fine, but you’d rather see your brother and cousin inherit over your parents. You would need a will in that situation to bypass the intestacy laws.
We provide several important services for your estate planning needs, including:
- Wills
- Trusts
- Durable Power of Attorney
- Advanced Health Care Directives
- Guardianship Provisions
- Living Wills
- Real Estate Transfers
- Marital Property Agreements
We provide services for probate issues and help those appointed as personal representative for a new estate.
