The Importance of Estate Planning
The importance of estate planning
Whether you belong to the wealthy or middle class, no matter if you’re young or old, estate planning offers unignorable benefits that require your attention now.
Mitigate estate and income tax
Taxes and expenses can chip away at your inheritance. Your attorney can leverage legal tax strategies to minimize outgoing costs and keep more of your wealth within your family. As an example, naming beneficiaries on life insurance and registered plans can pass directly to beneficiaries without having to probate those assets and incur potentially significant and unnecessary costs.
Transfer your assets exactly as you please
A will and a trust gives you control over how you wish to disburse your estate, explicitly instructing who will share in your estate, including family, friends, charities and any vulnerable or special needs people you seek to protect. That’s not all, you can also lay down the terms and conditions under which estate distribution must take place.
Stay prepared with incapacity planning
Legal incapacity arising from dementia or Alzheimer’s can make it challenging to manage your financial affairs and make healthcare decisions. To properly plan for an event of incapacity, you can create a general durable power of attorney document authorizing an individual chosen by you to handle your financial matters. An effective plan will also include a Health Care power of attorney appointing a patient advocate should you be unable to participate in your own medical decisions and stating the kind of medical treatment you want or do not want to receive.
ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO TRANSFER ASSETS TO BENEFICIARIES (OTHER THAN A WILL)
• A living trust that you create when you’re alive and which allows you to transfer property to heirs while maintaining control over how the property is used.
• Make a gift to the designated beneficiary, giving up control over the property while also gaining tax benefits.
• Direct transfers via rights of survivorship if your property is owned jointly or naming beneficiaries in your life insurance policies. In the former case, the surviving owner(s) will get the share of the deceased’s share of property. In the latter, death benefit proceeds will pass directly to the named beneficiaries.
• Enhanced Life Estate Deeds or “Ladybird Deeds” which allows you to plan for the direct conveyance upon your death of real property such as your home or a vacation or income property without requiring probate of your estate.
Estate planning can be straightforward or complex but it is vital at every level and for many reasons. It is wise for everyone to have an estate plan in place that is tailored for your specific needs and those of your family. Don’t wait to engage an estate planning attorney to create and administer your estate plan.
Abraham | Law: Experienced and Exceptional Estate Planning Representation
Michigan Estate Planning Attorney Mathew J. Abraham and ABRAHAM | LAW have been providing effective legal representation to individuals and businesses for more than 26 years. If you have questions about estate planning or probate issues, you should call ABRAHAM LAW at 810-750-0440 or reach out through our online request to schedule an initial consultation.
As a Michigan estate planning attorney, Matthew Abraham engages in close and careful consultation with his clients so that he prepares documents that are custom fit for each client’s particular situation. Abraham Law prepares its clients’ estate planning documents so they will accurately and effectively speak to their wishes and goals.