Keeping Your Estate Plan Up-to-Date
Estate planning has less to do with taxes and more to do with making sure your wishes are known and honored. Especially if you have an existing estate plan yet have not incorporated life changes into your plan, it may be time to visit with your trusted adviser to discuss revisions resulting from family changes, business changes or needs and interest changes.
If any life events have occurred since you created your estate plan, incorporating those changes has a direct impact on the effectiveness of your plan and how that plan will carry out your wishes for your heirs. If life events have occurred, it may be important to review things such as any existing plans with formulas tied to estate tax exclusion amounts. Also, review how much you are passing on to the kids, to your spouse, and to your favorite charities.
Once you identify issues in your current estate plan, you might need to seek your adviser's council on issues like having a plan flexible enough for the surviving spouse to make decisions, including a disclaimer trust plan that might better allow a surviving spouse to decide if and how to fund trusts at the death of the first spouse. It is important to be clear on how powers of appointment allow the surviving spouse to change disposition of trusts established at first spouse's death, and to discuss with your trusted adviser and attorney what trust protectors should be used, if any.
If gifting will be part of your estate plan, you might want to make sure your plan is up-to-date on issues like FLPs and the accompanying discounts, utilizing the $14,000 2014 annual gift exemption. You may also want to consider how accelerated gifts using lifetime gift exclusion can be a benefit in your circumstances?
There are other reasons to have an up-to-date estate plan, maybe with a trust provision. Would your surviving spouse and/or beneficiaries of your estate benefit from trust planning at the death of the first spouse using Credit Shelter Trust/Martial Trust vs. the "I Love You Will". You can craft a trust to protect assets from future events such as future "new" spouse, creditors of surviving spouse, and changes in tax law. For those who have children, you might want to use a trust to protect your kids from creditors, soon to be ex-spouse, dependencies and addictions, or allowing for Special Needs planning. The best way to predict the future is to create it. So make a plan for your future, update it on a regular basis.
For more information, feel free to Contact Neptune Financial to schedule an appointment.
Basic Understanding
This blog is being provided for informational or educational purposes only. It does not take into an investment objectives or financial situation of any individual, family, prospect, client, or prospective clients. The information is not written or intended as investment advice and is not a recommendation about managing or investing your retirement savings.
An individual seeking information regarding their investment or retirement needs should contact a financial professional.
Neptune Financial, and their financial professionals do not render tax and legal advice. Please consult your tax and legal advisors regarding your personal tax or legal concerns.
