Information Necessary for Preparation of an Estate Plan
There are several topics which you should consider prior
to meeting with your attorney to design an estate plan.
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Guardians for Minor Children
Who is best able to cope with the raising of your children?
Factors to consider include: age of proposed guardians,
ages of their children and the health and financial situation
of all parties. Decide on an alternate should your first
choice be unable or unwilling to serve and, if you name
a couple and one of them dies would you want the survivor
to act as sole guardian? What if they divorce?
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Personal Representative of Your Estate
Who do you want to handle the details of paying your debts
and death taxes and distributing your assets?
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Living Revocable Trust
Is it important to you to avoid probate or to be prepared
in the event of incapacity?
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Trust and Trustee
Do you want to create a trust under your will to provide
for your spouse and/or children rather than give them
direct control of assets? If so, you will need to name
a trustee to manage investments, pay taxes, make distributions,
etc., and you will want to provide for one or more successor
trustees.
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Corporate vs. Individual Fiduciary
Personal representatives and trustees can be either individuals
or corporate trust companies (banks). Corporate fiduciaries
have the advantages of permanence, financial accountability,
impartiality, investment expertise, tax and accounting
abilities, and studies have shown that they sometimes
save many dollars in the average estate. An individual,
however, may not charge a fee, may have a more personal
interest, may be more flexible, and may have special expertise
such as running the family business. You could name an
individual and a corporate trustee as co-trustees in order
to obtain the advantages of each.
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Distributions to Children
If you do not want your assets distributed outright to
your children, they should be held in a Trust until the
age or ages you specify. It is often preferable to distribute
a portion of the estate at several different times such
as at ages 25, 30 and 35, so that they get used to handling
large sums of money without putting everything at risk.
You should also consider whether you would like the trustee
to have the discretion to make early distributions for
specified purposes such as education or a down payment
on a home or business.
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Charitable Bequests
Are you interested in making any charitable bequests and
would you like more information on how to do this in a
manner that reduces your income and death taxes?
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