The News

Estate Planning:

What is it and why do we do it?

You spend your entire life creating wealth. The more wealth you create the more unhappy the people you leave behind will be without the proper estate planning. Estate planning allows you to decide while you are alive how your assets will be distributed. It also allows you to protect your heirs from unanticipated devastating expenses ranging from debts to taxes to administrative fees.

The federal government imposes a substantial tax on gifts of money or property above certain levels. Without such a tax someone with a sizable estate could give away a large portion of their property before death and escape death taxes altogether. For this reason, the gift tax acts more or less as a backstop to the estate tax. And yet, few people actually pay a gift tax during their lifetime. A gift program can substantially reduce overall transfer taxes; however, it requires good planning and a commitment to proceed with the gifts.