Estate Planning
When you think of the term “estate plan,” it may conjure up images of “lives of the rich and famous”. But the reality is that you don’t have to be exceptionally wealthy to have an estate…or to have an estate tax issue.
In its most basic sense, a taxable estate is “the portion of a person’s net assets that are taxable upon his or her death”. With that in mind, a taxable estate is defined as the total value of a deceased person’s assets that are subject to taxation, minus liabilities, and minus the prescribed tax-deductible portion of assets that are left behind by the deceased.
In most cases, a person’s taxable estate will likely consist of some or all of the following types of assets:
- Cash
- CD’s
- Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds (including retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401k’s)
- Real estate
- Personal property
- Life insurance
- Business(es) owned
- Autos and other vehicles
- Jewelry
Having an estate plan can allow you to not only protect assets from taxes and creditors, but it can also provide you with control over who receives what – and who doesn’t.
With effective estate planning, you can build your estate during your asset-accumulation years, maintain your financial independence during retirement, and designate someone to make medical decisions for you when you cannot.
Estate planning also helps you protect your assets against the high costs of long-term care and to manage your financial and legal affairs if you become disabled.
Frank Financial Concepts works in conjunction with your tax, legal, insurance, and estate planning specialists to help you explore and implement the estate planning strategies that are suitable for you and those you care about.
For more details on the estate planning process, Contact Us.