The Top Ten Reasons to Stop Delaying
10. Your money goes to unintended people. In other words, if you allow your state law to determine who gets your stuff, the result may well be unintended and you are not around to fix the problems. An estate plan ensures that you decided who gets what, and when they get it. You stay in control of your stuff.
9. Uncle Sam will become your beneficiary. If your estate is taxable, the testator may be able to pass significantly more property to heirs with proper planning and executed documents. Taxes and probate costs can eat up a good bit of your estate.
8. Your business could go to people who can't work with each other. What will happen to the business then, after all the years you spent building it? You know that key people who can’t or won’t work together will end up destroying your hard work. Estate planning examines how to keep the business going with the least amount of disruption.
7. The court gets to help run your family business. A properly composed will in most states permits the estate, including your family business, to function without court supervision over daily details of running the business.
6. Your kid(s) finances will get very complicated. If property passes to minors, court required guardianships will be involved in disbursement decisions, accountings, etc., not to mention that the testator may not want the person most likely to be the guardian, such as an ex-spouse, to be the guardian. Trusts can solve most or all of your problems with passing property to you’re young children.
5. Your son will be able to buy a Ferrari. In the absence of a properly composed will (and perhaps a trust), most heirs get the inheritance at age 18. That is when the auto dealers drool and the money is wasted away, etc. Protect your family’s future from unscrupulous salespeople and from half-baked ideas.
4. Your kids may end up paying taxes on the life insurance collected by your sister. If the estate is taxable, without planning here all kinds of unintended results can occur. Life insurance can be a great protection for their future, but it can be done well or poorly. Estate planning examines the options to ensure you get the most out of your life insurance investment.
3. Your soon-to-be-ex-son-in-law will get a big chunk of your assets. With no will, your child most likely takes at age 18 and if the property is not in trust it is available for, to pick one example, your child's husband's scheme to have a chain of tanning salons.
2. Your neediest child gets shortchanged. A will can permit the trustee to disburse more sensibly than with mathematical parity. Children with special needs can be provided for at a level that ensures they too have a high quality of life.
1. Your final message to your family is “I don't care”. Need more be said?
0. Regardless of whether the estate is taxable, a properly drafted will means there are fewer total costs, final wishes get honored, and it all gets done more quickly than if everything is handled according to the state law on distribution of inheritances.
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Posted by: anandhan | June 24, 2009 at 09:53 PM