Financial Planning - 12 Basic Estate Planning Questions

12 Basic Estate Planning Questions

Estate planning has three primary objectives:

* To ensure distribution of your estate according to your real wishes;
* To reduce or eliminate costs;
* To minimize the complexity of settling your estate.

But, where do you start? I find that members can move through the process much more effectively and confidently if they focus on some key issues in advance.

1. Is the net value of your estate more than the estate tax exemption?
2. If you die before your spouse, are you willing to leave your estate to your spouse with no strings attached?
3. If both you and your spouse die, do you wish the estate to be held as a common fund for all your children, or should each have a separate trust fund?
4. At what age should your children receive their inheritance outright, free and clear of any trust?
5. Who should serve as trustees of the trusts established for your children?
6. Who should serve as the guardian for your children if both parents die?
7. If the entire family dies in a common disaster, who should inherit the estate?
8. What specific items of property would you like to leave to specific individuals?
9. Do you wish to have any portion of your estate pass to charity?
10. Assume your entire family and close friends are assembled for the reading of your Will after your death, what special provisions would you like to have included in the Will?
11. Do you wish to have your vital organs made available for research or transplantation?
12. If you were terminally ill and would die momentarily unless given life support procedures, would you like to have your family members empowered with the right to have those life support procedures withheld?

Some of these questions may not be pertinent to your situation. But, thoughtful consideration of those that do apply can help you minimize legal costs and make the process a truer realization of your key estate planning objectives.