Information Necessary for Preperation of an Estate Plan
There are several topics which you should consider prior to meeting with your attorney to design an estate plan.
- Guardians for Minor Children
- Personal Representative of Your Estate
- Living Revocable Trust
- Trust and Trustee
- Corporate vs. Individual Fiduciary
- Distributions to Children
- Charitable Bequests
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?
Personal Representative of Your Estate
Who do you want to handle the details of paying your debts and death taxes and distributing your assets?
Living Revocable Trusts
Is it important to you to avoid probate or to be prepared in the event of incapacity?
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.
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.
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.
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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Estate Planning for Large Estates ($5 million and higher)
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