We are here to help you plan in maximizing a tax-efficient transfer of your assets to your loved ones. We can help you prepare your wills, trusts, durable power of attorney and advance directive for health care.
If you don't take care of your estate, the IRS will.
When Elvis Presley died, his estate was worth more than $10 million. His daughter received less than one-third of that. When Karen Carpenter died, her $6 million estate only netted her heirs about $1 million. Who was the biggest beneficiary in these well-publicized cases? The Internal Revenue Service.
Without proper estate planning, a significant portion of your estate could go to the IRS; larger estates are taxed at an upwardly spiraling rate that reached 48% in 2004. That means the government can claim almost half of what you and your spouse have worked so hard to achieve.
What's the problem? Without estate planning, you can't take maximum advantage of tax strategies. You can't guarantee that the assets in your estate will be preserved for your heirs. Having a will just isn't good enough anymore.
What's the solution? Just one. Planning. Emmanuel A. Santos is a California attorney and certified public accountant; and he can help you review and implement your estate planning options.
The truth is, everyone—from the moment they are on their own financially—needs to think about estate planning and then do something about it. Estate planning provides a way for people to gain peace of mind and a feeling of control that their wishes are being carried out.
ESTATE PLANNING AND CONSERVATION
Estate conservation involves the preparations necessary to accomplish two goals:
- The first goal is managing your assets during your lifetime. Wealth management is at the heart of a sound financial program.
- The second goal is helping you make arrangements for the prompt and intended distribution of your assets upon your death.
Effective estate conservation has several benefits for all people — not just the very wealthy.
- Estate conservation enables you to select who will receive your assets.
- It can help you determine the distribution of your estate, meaning you decide if, how, and when your beneficiaries will receive their inheritance.
- It will enable you to choose individuals who will manage your estate, after your passing, including an executor, a trustee, and others.
- It can help reduce estate settlement costs, including probate expenses and taxes.
- If your children are young, it enables you to choose guardians for them.
- Finally, effective estate conservation can help provide liquid capital to cover burial, settlement, and income tax costs.
- Estate conservation enables you to select who will receive your assets.
- It can help you determine the distribution of your estate, meaning you decide if, how, and when your beneficiaries will receive their inheritance.
- It will enable you to choose individuals who will manage your estate, after your passing, including an executor, a trustee, and others.
- It can help reduce estate settlement costs, including probate expenses and taxes.
- If your children are young, it enables you to choose guardians for them.
- Finally, effective estate conservation can help provide liquid capital to cover burial, settlement, and income tax costs.
To help ensure that your estate is managed and distributed according to your wishes, it is important to have certain legal documents in place. Not only do they provide a roadmap that your heirs can follow, but they can provide instructions for how you want financial and medical decisions to be made on your behalf if you become unable to make them yourself.
These documents should be kept up-to-date and in a secure location that is known to family members and/or trusted professionals. Here are a few of the documents that typically make up an estate plan.
A power of attorney gives a trusted individual the power and authority to act on your behalf in certain legal and financial matters. Because some power-of-attorney agreements will not be applicable to a disability or an incompetency, you will need additional agreements. You should consider including one or more of them as part of your estate conservation efforts.
A durable power of attorney for finances enables you to name a trusted individual to act on your behalf even in the event that you become disabled or incapacitated. This person would make investment and other financial decisions that would affect your overall estate until you recover.
An advance healthcare directive (durable power of attorney for health care) outlines your preferences for forms of medical treatment and gives an individual the authority to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make them yourself. It outlines which medical procedures you will allow in the event of a debilitating or chronic illness. Advance healthcare directive is most often used to authorize termination of artificial life support in the event of terminal illness.
A will provides instructions detailing how you want your estate to be distributed.
And trust records provide pertinent information about the trusts you have created to help preserve and distribute your estate. Visit the other pages of our website for more information about wills and trusts.
Estate planning services offered:
- Evaluate your estate planning objectives.
- Determine the proper documents to express your wishes: a will, revocable living trust, living wills, general durable power of attorney or power of attorney for health care.
- Review or modify your existing estate planning documents to maximize your tax reduction and asset protection strategies.
- Execute the estate planning strategies with the help of a trusted and reputable attorney.