Answer yes to any of the following questions and you should have an estate plan.1. Do you own any property, real or personal? Have you any ideas of where you want that property to go upon your death?
2. Are you married? Are you divorced and/or remarried? Have you changed beneficiaries on your existing accounts, IRAs, CDs, Insurance Policies?
3. Do you have children? Are they under the age of 18? Have you provided for someone to take care of them should anything happen to you?
4. Do you have children from a previous marriage? Do you want them to receive a portion of your estate when you die?
5. Have you designated the ages and/or terms when your children will receive your assets after your death? How mature are your children? Can they handle your estate? Who will assist them?
6. Do you want to place parameters on your children receiving your estate? Do you want them to be over age 25 when they receive their gifts? Do you want them to receive their gifts at different intervals in their lives? Do you want to designate that they can use some of their assets for education, business opportunities or purchasing real property?
7. Do you want friends to receive gifts, rather than family members? Do you want charities, churches, shelters, Universities etc. to receive gifts?
8. Have you considered what will happen to your life insurance proceeds, IRA, CDS etc., when you pass away? Who are the named beneficiaries? What are the repercussions of who, what and when the beneficiaries will inherit? How will these assets affect your overall estate for estate tax purposes?
9. Have you evaluated the gross value of your estate? Have you considered the approximate amount of estate taxes that may be due upon your death? (Your gross estate is comprised of all assets, less liabilities. Estate taxes are payable on any assets over $2,000,000 (this amount will increase in uneven increments to $3.5 million in 2009). Estate taxes begin at 37% and quickly rise to 49%.).
10. How can you reduce your estate for estate tax purposes? How can you protect your assets for future generations?
11. Have you considered the event of your incapacity? Who will handle your financial affairs? What responsibilities do you want to give that person? Who will make health care decisions for you if you are unable? Have you designated your desires for medical treatment? Do you wish to donate organs? Do you wish to be kept alive by life support if you are terminally ill? Do you wish to be buried or cremated?
12. Who will inherit your estate if you do not have an estate plan and make no designation?
1. If you are married, your spouse will inherit all community property. Your separate property will pass to your spouse and children in varying shares.13. Even if you have an estate plan, have you reviewed it? Are the people you have designated for the roles of Executor, Trustee or Guardian, still the appropriate people? Are the gifts you have designated still the gifts you wish to make?
2. If you are not married but have children, your estate will pass to your children in equal shares after age 18.
3. If you are not married and have no children, your estate will pass to your parents. If your parents are deceased, your siblings will share your estate in equal shares. If your siblings are deceased then your nieces and nephews will share your estate in equal shares, and so on down the line of descendancy.
14. Do you have a trust? Do you understand what it does? Have you funded, or placed your assets into the trust? Have you changed title to the real property? Have you refinanced your real property and neglected to place your property back into the trust.
All of these items are extremely important to take into consideration. If you do not designate where and to whom your property will pass upon your death, the State will make that decision for you via the laws of intestate succession. If it matters where your property, whether it be real or personal, goes upon your death, you need to make an estate plan and appoint a person you trust to follow your instructions.
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