What Assets Should Be Considered When Planning Your Estate

Anyone with assets of any kind, including real estate, does have an estate. Estate planning entails deciding what might happen to your belongings or possessions after your death or becoming unable to care for yourself.

Peace of mind is the main benefit of establishing an estate plan. You may decide or have the rights to who receives ownership of property or mortgage and make sure the loved ones are taken care of after you die by making an estate plan.

When deciding which assets and funds to include in your estate plan, you should consider all of them.

The assets might be anything wild like gold or silver bars, whether digital items kept in printed form or stocks and bonds stashed away in a drawer. There might be many assets, but any asset must be handled.

This content and article cover information about fundamental properties and processes for drafting an estate plan, along with examples and the assets you should consider.

 

Estate planning: what is it?

Establishing who could inherit your assets during death or disability is the process of estate planning. People typically use an attorney to ensure that assets are allocated to beneficiaries and heirs in a way that regulates and gets rid of gift taxes, estate taxes, and other tax implications. This objective is vital for estate planning.

 

What assets should be considered when planning your estate?

Preparing an estate plan should consider “any consider all” assets. Each estate will include a variety of items. However, generally speaking, you must record the following list of asset classes to ensure that your estate plan is comprehensive:

• Real estates, such as your house or an area of land
• Cash, credit cards, bank accounts (checking accounts, savings accounts), safety inventory deposit box boxes
• Stock funds, assets, and bonds
• Accounts for investments or brokerage services
• 401(k), IRA retirement accounts, retirement plans, and pensions
• Life insurance policies
• Collectibles and digital assets (antiques, art, etc.)
• Other personal or ownership property, mortgage, including vehicles, cars, and furniture.

 

Basic Checklist of Estate Planning

When developing the optimal strategy for your circumstances, it’s critical to consider various factors.

Make a list of everything you possess. An inventory of your assets is a necessary first step in any preparation for what happens. In addition, order, track, and select what to divide and to whom it occurs. Give your mortgages plenty of thought, and consider the following:

• Your house, land, and any other real estate properties you have
• Vehicles
• furniture for the home
• Accessories, jewelry, and garments
• Any collectibles like art and antiques
• money and cash in banks
• Brokerage accounts
• Pensions, stocks, bonds, life insurance, and retirement accounts

The last will and testament is a legal document that outlines your final intentions. It covers a variety of topics, such as:

• After your death, how to divide your assets should be specified in your will.
• Designating an executor (more about it below)
• Designating guardianship for your child, if necessary
• Ensuring the welfare of your pets
• Paying off any outstanding bills, taxes, and debts (including estate taxes assuming your estate is sufficiently large)
• Funeral arrangement

Name the executor. An executor would be the person in charge of gathering and allocating a deceased person’s assets per the deceased’s will. They will designate the executor, and the probate court will do so if the dead do not name an executor. The executor starts the probate procedure and speaks on behalf of the estate in court. It’s a great idea to specify a backup executor in your will who will serve in that capacity in case your first choice can or declines to do so.

Living trust. A living trust has the advantage of avoiding probate for its assets. The trustee, who establishes the trust, has the freedom to transfer any assets they wish to be transferred to its beneficiaries after their death. An irrevocable trust’s terms cannot be changed after it has been established, while a grantor can make changes as they see fit in a revocable living trust. Trusts come in various forms, such as marital, life insurance, and real estate trusts. You can learn more about the best choices for your estate from an estate planning attorney.

A living will, also known as a health care directive, outlines the medical treatment you will receive and how end-of-life events should be handled if you cannot make medical decisions for yourself. The health care proxy or power of attorney is a similar idea, and this is a person you choose to make choices about your health care system on your behalf.

Designate a guardian for children under 18. You can choose a guardian to raise your minor children and look out on their behalf if you die before they reach adulthood if you have children under 18.

 

Organize your digital assets.

While planning your affairs, there may be more important things on your mind than social media updates. Still, when everyone has an online presence, it’s a great idea to sit and establish a list of all your digital passwords and logins for all accounts. Consider valuable sites and apps from several categories, such as:

• Social media and messaging accounts: Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Facebook accounts
• Payments, Wire transfers, and Cash Apps are three payment and bank transfer options.

Give trusted individuals access to your digital assets following your death so they can follow your instructions after you have created a comprehensive list. Avoiding including sensitive data like passwords within your will is a brilliant idea since it becomes accessible after your death. Instead, ensure that your administrator knows where to locate your list.

Account beneficiary designations. You can choose beneficiaries for various accounts, such as bank accounts, savings accounts, retirement accounts, and retirement plans. These accounts refer to as “transferable on death” (TOD) or “payable on death” (POD) accounts. When you designate beneficiaries on an account, you can sidestep the probate process by paying or transferring the account to a beneficiary after your death. The designated beneficiaries may be:

• Surviving Spouse
• Children
• Siblings

Lasting power of attorney. Consider appointing a power of attorney over your costs and finances in addition to your medical powers of attorney (described above). If you become incapacitated, we will give this person the power to handle duties regarding your finances.

Long-term care and life insurance. To assist in paying off debts or leaving anything to dependents after your death, you might want to consider purchasing a life insurance policy.

 

Estate planning strategies

 

While a majority of us don’t appreciate discussing end-of-life matters involving wills and estates, additionally, it is vital to get past these mental block cases and regard estate preparation as an integral element of your entire financial plan benefits. When it comes down to it, we perform this procedure to ensure that we transfer your investments and money to your family and beneficiaries in the most efficient manner feasible.

Family units are becoming more complex in many circumstances, which makes estate planning more crucial than ever. Long-term care planning has gained importance due to living longer than before.

It would be best if you customize your estate plan according to your needs, objectives, and your family’s circumstances. While basic methods can be a great starting point for a customized strategy, we recommend getting professional advice to ensure you have covered all the essentials and selected the best solutions for you and your family.

Here are six examples of estate planning strategies that can assist you in securing your loved ones and assets. Wills, taxes, superannuation, and other pertinent subjects will be covered.

 

1. Consider wealth management first.

Examining your total wealth management and developing a strategy that will assist you in assembling the resources required to fulfill your objectives is one way to approach estate planning.

Many individuals need to make some modifications once they sit down and discuss their lifestyle goals for retirement, including provisions in later years, since estate planning necessitates a complete recording of all your assets. To define objectives, develop viable solutions, and monitor the performance of your investments, use the most excellent wealth management tools available today.

 

2. Transition to Retirement

Recognize utilizing the Transition towards Retirement to safeguard your assets if you have attained the preservation age and remain employed. Alternatively, you might work fewer hours through working part-time plus begin to get a regular superannuation income stream.

Transitioning to retirement may be something you want to include in your long-term finances if you still need to meet your preservation age. Using a TTR pension can reduce the total tax payable.

 

3. Obtain the Appropriate Level of Insurance

Another best way to maintain wealth is to protect your family and your estate from unanticipated disasters. Still, with the numerous insurance products available nowadays, it can be challenging to tell if your insurance is being used to its full potential.

Overspending on insurance products that don’t provide the protection you require can deplete your savings and leave you defenseless. Think strategically about your needs rather than trying to ensure them. Ask for guidance on the appropriate protection and policies for you and your family.

 

4. Secure Your Assets & Lower Risk

It would be best to have a strategy for securing your assets and lowering your risk value because life can be unpredictable. Although it is impossible to foretell your financial future, there are various ways to safeguard your assets and income statements.

You can significantly reduce the risk and help yourself achieve your goals by structuring your investment and retirement accounts.

 

5. Make a business exit plan.

You must consider how you will exit your company or businesses if you manage one eventually. What you can leave in the hands of family and beneficiaries will depend significantly on how you choose a track to pass on.

You can create a plan describing your successor, how inheritance risks will be handled, and how the money will function both during and after the transfer with the aid of business succession planning. You can resolve any legal concerns that impact your assets and what you ultimately leave to your family with the help of this planning.

 

6. Learn about the “death taxes” imposed by the state and federal governments.

Even though only a relatively small (and wealthy) portion of the population is affected by the government estate tax, it is still a good idea to become familiar with it. It is especially true, given the rules may soon change.

The federal government levies a tax on the value of a deceased person’s estate. According to the IRAs, the estate consists of all the money, vehicles, investments, businesses, and other possessions the deceased person had at their death or funeral. The estate, not the beneficiaries, is responsible for paying the tax.

 

Things to Consider When Estate Planning

A thoughtful estate strategy is an essential component of retirement preparation. Do you feel confident in your estate plan? The five suggestions below will assist you in identifying any designation gaps throughout your estate planning strategy.

 

1. Is My Will Updated?

Keeping your Will updated is among the most straightforward estate planning requirements. Anyone older than 18 and owning any property ought to draft a will. Making a will is relatively inexpensive, but it can significantly impact how your assets are divided after your death or funeral.

Without a will, state laws would decide how you distribute your money and possessions. Unhappy or alienated family members, or even other interested parties, frequently bring legal challenges in this situation. These circumstances are time-consuming, challenging, and expensive, and it is best to make a Will to avoid these issues.

By making a will, you can specify who will receive your assets, including cash, investments, real estate, homes, a vehicle, jewelry, works of art, and other valuables. Using your will, you can communicate your intentions for your funeral, burial, and cremation to your loved ones.

 

2. Have I chosen beneficiaries for my insurance and investment accounts?

You can choose beneficiaries to receive the funds after your death in your insurance plans, retirement accounts, and other investment accounts. If you haven’t previously, you should also designate a Reversionary Beneficiary or Death Nomination on your super account. This document will ensure that any super account is handled as you specify, even when it is not automatically sent to your estate when being dispersed per the directions you provide in your will.

 

3. Have I Named Legal Guardianship For My Spouses and Children?

One of the most crucial situations you can take when you prepare your estate may be this. What might happen to the people who depend on you if you passed away tomorrow? Do you currently have an established plan for them that provides everything for their development and education and a guardian representative who will take up responsibilities to guide and care for them?

 

4. Do I Need to Establish a Testamentary Trust?

A testamentary trust, which is a trust established following your will, can help you distribute your estate more tax efficiently and lower your chance of having your will contested. Elective trusts, special disability trusts, or other trusts exist; the type of trust appropriate for you may depend on your objectives, family status, and other variables.

If you’ve got dependents under the age of 18, trusts can be constructive. It appoints a trustee to look over your beneficiaries’ inheritances up until the point at which you want the money to be distributed to them. Trusts may be risky, though, if other parties file lawsuits against the trust.

 

5. Have I had my estate plan reviewed by professionals?

A skilled wealth management advisor or advisor can help you improve your estate planning and protect your estate.

 

What will occur if I pass away without a will?

Your estate will be divided following your state’s intestate rules if you pass away without leaving a will.

Intestate laws, also called the legislation of descent distribution, define the line of succession. Although state rules vary, intestate succession often goes from the nearest to farthest relatives.

For instance, if there is a surviving spouse, the succession would commence with them and then move on to biological and adoptive children, surviving parents, grandchildren, siblings, nephews and nieces, aunts, and uncles.

Your state’s succession order can be different, and this will depend on the law as well as the members of your family who will be left behind.

 

Who Should Have an Estate Plan?

An estate plan might benefit everyone, and future planning should not be considered a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Everybody must make an effort to make arrangements that will prevent their loved ones from having to handle their final affairs in a complicated way.

Your estate plan may specify how your family should act to ensure you receive the medical care you desire if you become disabled. If you have any live dependents, you can appoint guardianship to take care of them through your estate plan, removing any doubt about their welfare if you cannot do so yourself.

An estate plan might assist you in making arrangements if you have children you want to protect after your physical incapacitation or death.

 

Should I Prepare an Estate Plan?

Although establishing an estate plan isn’t required, doing so is highly sensible.

As said previously, if you don’t have any estate plan, your state’s intestate laws will determine how your assets are divided. Your assets may end up being dispersed in ways as a result of this that you would not want to occur.

You need an estate plan to control how your assets are divided or how the surviving family members will be cared for.

An estate plan gives you control over your estate and significantly lessens the stress on your remaining family members during the distribution of your wealth.

Your loved ones will have peace of mind knowing your desires are being carried out thanks to an estate plan, which explains precisely how you would like things to proceed. Additionally, it offers precise instructions that can help prevent family disputes and probate litigation.

 

How Do You Create an Estate Plan?

Making an estate plan necessitates thoughtful consideration and advice from experts who focus on helping people with issues linked to estate planning. The best person to advise you on estate planning would be an attorney specializing in estate disputes. The Giuliani Law Firm can assist if you reside in Las Vegas and require estate planning services.

 

Typical Estate Planning Documents

Essential components of estate planning include the following documents. Each document symbolizes a vital aspect of your final intentions, and all of these documents, taken together, constitute a thorough estate plan.

• Guardianship Documents – A document that outlines your preferences for who you would like to take care of your dependents, including children if you become incapable or pass away
• Will – A formal statement of your final wishes regarding your estate.
• Trust – A legally binding arrangement between three parties where the first party (yourself) grants the second party (the appointed trustee, it could be friends or others) the authority to hold and ultimately distribute possession of property and assets on your behalf towards the third person (your beneficiaries). 
• Financial Power of Attorney (POA)- A legal document allowing you to give someone else control over your finances and business activities.
• Durable Power of Attorney (POA)- This type of financial power of attorney gives someone the authority to manage your non-medical affairs. Durable here refers to the fact that POA is still in effect even if you are incapacitated.
• Advance Healthcare Directive (AHCD) – Also known as a living will – and medical power of attorney. If you cannot make medical decisions for yourself, this directive specifies as a substitute for what steps (if any) must be done. An AHCD combines the legal requirements of a living will with a health care power of attorney, letting you specify its terms of use on who you want to make health care decisions for you if you cannot do so yourself.
• HIPAA Authorization – With the help of this document, you can grant access to personal medical records to a third party.

Estate Tax Planning

Planning for taxes on estates and other property types should be a part of estate planning. Your plan must allow you to meet tax obligations while leaving potential beneficiaries far more than you possibly can.

Your estate planning can handle the following tax types:

• Estate taxes – Any local government, state law, and federal levies deducted from your estate after your funeral.
• Inheritance taxes – Taxes that beneficiaries must pay after receiving inherited property.
• Gift taxes are taxes imposed on gifts given beyond a specified threshold and paid for by creditors.

You can prevent probate and save your estate for the same purposes of paying an expensive amount of taxes by being aware of the tax processes involved in estate planning.

 

Questions to Ask a Lawyer for Estate Planning

If you’re attempting to decide what assets to include in your estate plan, consider seeing an estate planning lawyer.

Making an asset inventory and creating legal paperwork are just two steps in the estate planning process that an attorney can help you with.

Thankfully, many lawyers offer the free consultation category to prospective clients. You can seek legal counsel at these consultations for opinions and assess whether the lawyer is a good fit in front of your needs.

Ask pertinent questions to make the most of a consultation, like:

1. What choices do you have for cost billing and attorney fees?
2. What documents do I require for estate planning?
3. Do I need to create trust?
4. What should I take into account while choosing an executor or administrator?
5. How should a durable power of attorney be set up?

 

Plan for Your Future with The Giuliani Law Firm

If you need more confidence and clarification on what is involved in estate planning, we comprehend how difficult it can be. The skilled attorneys at The Giuliani Law Firm greatly delight in advising clients who require tips, instruction, directions, and assistance regarding estate planning-related matters. To ensure your sense of lifetime security regarding your final affairs issue, we would love to help you and let you experience a confident plan for the future and offer legal support services.

For more information or any questions, don’t hesitate to schedule a consultation with us; our lawyer can help you on any matter or reason you want to know regarding estate planning or probate or call us at (702) 388-9800.

 

 

For more information on how https://probateattorneyvegas.com/ can help you with What Assets Should Be Considered When Planning Your Estate, please contact us at (702) 388-9800, or visit us here:

The Giuliani Law Firm

500 N Rainbow Blvd #300, Las Vegas, NV 89107

(702) 388-9800

Estate Planning Lawyer Las Vegas