Recent News & Blog / Estate Planning
Avoiding challenges to your estate plan
A primary goal of estate planning is to ensure that your wishes are carried out after you’re gone. So, it’s important to design your estate plan to withstand potential will contests or other challenges down the road.
An estate planning “road map” can act as a catchall for your final thoughts
No matter how much effort you’ve invested in crafting an estate plan, your will, trusts and other official documents may not be enough. Consider also drafting a “road map.” Essentially, it’s an informal letter that guides your family in executing your plan according to your wishes.
Joint ownership isn’t right for all estate plans
Generally speaking, owning property jointly benefits an estate plan. Indeed, joint ownership offers several advantages for surviving family members. However, there are exceptions and it’s not the solution for all estate planning problems.
Is your revocable trust fully funded?
A revocable trust — sometimes known as a “living trust” — can provide significant benefits. They include the ability to avoid probate of the assets the trust holds and facilitating management of your assets in the event you become incapacitated. To obtain these benefits, however, you must fund the trust — that is, transfer title of assets to the trust or designate the trust as the beneficiary of retirement accounts or insurance policies. Contact SEK's estate planning advisors for assistance.
Business owners: Now’s the time to revisit buy-sell agreements
If you own an interest in a closely held business, a buy-sell agreement should be a critical component of your estate and succession plans.
Deciding whether to make lifetime gifts or bequests at death can be a deceptively complex question
One of your primary estate planning goals may be to pass as much of your wealth to your family as possible. That means sheltering your estate from gift and estate taxes. One way to do so is to make gifts during your lifetime.
Run the numbers before donating appreciated assets to charity
Are you charitably inclined? If so, you probably know that donations of long-term appreciated assets, such as stocks, have an advantage over cash donations. But in some cases, selling appreciated assets and donating the proceeds may be a better strategy.
Estate planning vocab 101: Executor and trustee
Among the many decisions you’ll have to make as your estate plan is being drafted is who you will appoint as the executor of your estate and the trustee of your trusts. These are important appointments, and, in fact, both roles can be filled by the same person.
Deducting a trust’s charitable donations
If you’re charitably inclined, it may be desirable to donate assets held in a trust. Why? Perhaps you’re not ready to let go of assets you hold individually. Or maybe the tax benefits of donating trust property would be more attractive than making an individual donation.
Making annual exclusion gifts can be a deceptively powerful estate planning strategy
In 2022, for most people, it may seem like planning for gift and estate taxes is unnecessary because of the $12.06 million federal gift and estate tax exemption.