      
Estate
Planning
Some
people would rather have a root canal than an Estate Plan done.
Some of the wealthiest and most successful people have done no estate
planning. I’ve heard all of the excuses… I don’t
need it, I already have some insurance, I want it to be a sad day
for everybody when I die....
Estate
Planning is the one thing you don’t do for yourself. You do
it for everyone else. You do it for your heirs. You’re not
going to have to pay the taxes, they are.
It
encompasses some of the simplest strategies and some of the most
complicated. But a well-constructed plan can save your heirs a fortune.
If not done, as much as 75% of the estate can go to taxes.
We
at Cornerstone are not attorneys. We do not give legal advice. But
we have over 130 combined years of experience in the business and
we have seen our share of good plans and very, very bad ones.
We’ve
seen family trusts set up with the donor’s social security
number instead of a tax id number. We’ve seen people worth
millions have no plan except a small GI insurance policy. We’ve
seen assets go to the wrong heirs because the will wasn’t
updated properly.
We’ve
also seen the thrill and relief in a Grandmother’s face when
she finished signing the paperwork to set up her estate plan.
Strategies
as simple as re-titling assets can save money on estate taxes. Switching
ownership of insurance policies between husband and wife takes it
out of the estate.
Yes,
many times a good estate plan includes insurance. We’ve seen
situations where an insurance payment of $10,000 per year will give
the heirs $500,000 of death benefit to pay the taxes. Sure, if the
insured lives 50 years, the insurance isn’t such a good deal,
but this was for a 60 year old. Living another 50 years is usually
not expected. Another 30 years yes, 50 - no. There is nothing we
can do for someone’s portfolio that can turn $10,000 into
$500,000 overnight.
There
are all sorts of strategies that can be employed to save money currently,
(like having your company buy your insurance and take a tax deduction
for the premiums paid.)
There
are a number of links on this page that will give you more information
about Estate Planning. Our role is that of facilitator. We put together
the proper professionals to create your plan. We have a number of
attorneys to whom we refer clients. We review a client’s estate
and give them an overview of what they should be looking to do and
then work with the attorney to put it in place. Clients can use
our attorneys or their own, our concern is that the plan is done
properly, so we like to review plans before they are finalized.
If
you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
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