Estate Planning: Carrying Out Our Wishes

 Who will get our property when we’re done with it? By means of careful estate planning, we can provide for our loved ones and insure that our wishes will be carried out.
Estate planning includes enumeration and evaluation of assets, cash flow management, analysis of tax consequences of gifts and bequests and preparation of legal documents to minimize taxes, expenses and inconvenience for our beneficiaries.
If you don’t want to give your assets away while you’re alive, you can execute a will, to direct disposition of your estate to your beneficiaries, appoint a personal representative and nominate a guardian of your children’s person and property.  Disposition by will usually requires a court-supervised probate, a procedure which includes the identification and appraisal of assets, notification of creditors, payment of creditors’ claims, an accounting of assets, receipts and disbursements and an order for distribution. Probate is required if you leave assets in your own name having an aggregate gross value of over $150,00. Probate takes a year or more and typically costs thousands of dollars.
If your net estate exceeds $150,000, you may want a revocable living trust.  A well-drafted and properly funded revocable living, (“inter vivos”) trust:
• Appoints your representative (trustee) and informs your family of your wishes and instructions;
• Avoids the cost, time and effort of probate;
• May in some case save thousands of dollars of Federal estate taxes;
• Assures continuity of management of your assets; and
• Permits timely, inexpensive transfer of your assets to your beneficiaries.
What estate planning documents are best for you? That depends on your own particular situation. Your attorney and your tax professional are in the best position to help you decide. In any case, don’t procrastinate. Do your estate planning while you can. Sudden illness, accidents and earthquakes happen.
A word of caution: Have your will or trust prepared by an attorney experienced in estate planning. The consequences of poor or imprecise drafting are potentially devastating to your loved ones.  Even basic estate planning is too important to entrust to an amateur or to “standard” forms that were not created with you, especially, in mind.
Jerry Kessler practices law in Santa Clarita.  For more information, please call 661-255-1001.