Using, Conserving and Efficiently Transferring Your Wealth

Estate planning is the process of arranging your assets and personal affairs in a manner that serves you and your family best, now and in the future. It provides you with an orderly succession arrangement designed to preserve the assets that you have worked so hard to accumulate. A well-designed estate plan ensures, in the event of your death or mental incapacity, that your affairs are settled in a timely, orderly and tax-efficient manner. An estate plan should be developed to ensure that your current and future assets would be distributed to your beneficiaries with maximum ease and minimum cost. The result is a solid estate plan and our clients' peace of mind.

Our estate planning process, depending on your particular situation, may involve consideration of the following:

• Reviewing wills, powers of attorney and living wills.
• Making sure you have designated beneficiaries for any qualified retirement plans, IRAs, insurance policies, etc.
• Reviewing trusts established during lifetime or upon death.
• Proper titling of assets.
• Making sure you utilize the annual gift tax exclusion to reduce estate size.
• Gifting during lifetime to reduce estate size.
• Business succession plans.
• Insurance needs for estate liquidity.
• Fully utilizing tax exclusions, tax credits, tax deductions and tax exemptions.
• Estimating gift and/or estate tax liabilities.
• Sufficient liquidity to pay estate taxes.

We guide our clients through the estate planning process by using the expertise of an estate-planning attorney. If you do not have an estate-planning attorney, we can help refer you to an attorney that specializes in this area.