Articles

Your Estate Plan

Ideas You Can Really Use

By Earl H. Cohen, Attorney at Law

Mansfield Tanick & Cohen, P.A.

Estate Planning, What is it? An Act or Process?

January 2007

Welcome to the second in a series of articles, Your Estate Plan and Planned Giving, a monthly series of articles on estate planning and planned charitable giving. Regardless of your age or the size of your estate this series of articles will present practical information and ideas you can really use in planning and keeping your estate and charitable giving plans up to date. Future Topics will include Estate Planning Techniques, Proper Use of Beneficiary Designations, and Living Trusts.

When I ask clients or friends what they believe estate planning means to them I get some surprising answers. Some people believe that estate planning is having a will. Others say that estate planning is wealth building. Sometimes I hear, “I don’t know exactly what it means, but I know I should do something, but I don’t know exactly what.” What seems to be constant is a belief that estate planning is an act-you do it and you’re done. As some people tell me, “I have a will, what more is there?”

Estate planning, especially today in a very rapidly changing tax and economic environment, is a continuing process. We plan today based upon what we know and can predict. As a process this means that we must review plans periodically. For some people that means each year and for others that may mean reviewing their plan every two to three years. Every circumstance is different.

Estate planning as a process involves a variety of types of planning. Planning for the transfer and management of assets after death, planning for the management of health and financial affairs including business in the case of incapacity, planning for the protection of assets during lifetime and for beneficiaries and possibly most important of all, planning for the legacy you leave behind for your family and your community.

That sounds easy enough, so what seems to be the problem? People don’t plan for their estate plans to fail, they fail to plan.

Regardless of estate size or makeup, everyone needs an estate plan. Without a plan the state has a statutory plan designating who receives your assets, who serves as the administrator of your affairs and who might serve as the guardian of your children. Having an estate plan provides among other things assurance that your affairs are managed as you want and that your assets pass to your choice of beneficiaries in the manner and timing you choose.

A properly prepared plan should provide for the management of your affairs if you are incapacitated and at your death, the disposition of all your assets, the management and protection of your estate for your beneficiaries and it should minimize the impact of taxes and probate.

Watch for next month’s article in which we will discuss The Most Common (and Useful) Estate Planning Techniques.

Please contact us for further information on how this estate planning process may apply to your situation.