Financial
Planning
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.
- Is the net value of your estate more than the estate tax exemption?
- If you die before your spouse, are you willing to leave your estate
to your spouse with no strings attached?
- 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?
- At what age should your children receive their inheritance outright,
free and clear of any trust?
- Who should serve as trustees of the trusts established for your children?
- Who should serve as the guardian for your children if both parents
die?
- If the entire family dies in a common disaster, who should inherit
the estate?
- What specific items of property would you like to leave to specific
individuals?
- Do you wish to have any portion of your estate pass to charity?
- 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?
- Do you wish to have your vital organs made available for research
or transplantation?
- 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.
