Your Health, Your Heirs, Your Assets:
Estate planning lets YOU decide how they are handled.
It doesn’t matter how much or how little wealth you have accumulated - State inheritance law will decide how your estate is distributed, unless you plan otherwise.
My clients are individuals, families, business owners and professionals in Westchester County, New Jersey, metropolitan New York City, and Florida. They wish to safeguard their estates, secure their family’s’ future, and minimize taxes.
Why establish your estate plan now?
Regardless of age, marital status, or level of wealth, everyone deserves to make certain choices for themselves:
- Quality of life decisions: Estate planning allows you to give directions about how you should be treated in case you are incapacitated or unable to decide in the moment. This can remove the uncertainty and burden of decision making that would otherwise fall to your family members. In times of a health crisis, the last thing family members need is to deal with more strife and conflict. Learn more about a health care proxy and healthcare power of attorney.
- Guardianship of your children: You live together, travel together – what happens if you both die together? Without specific directions, any minors will be placed under the guardianship of your nearest (willing) relative, or they will pass into the state’s foster care system.
- Helping your friends, relatives and charities: without proper direction by a will or a plan document, the state will share nothing with any relatives outside your immediate family, nor with your friends or worthy causes that you might have had in mind.
- Fair treatment for your family: without a will, statutes will usually pass everything to your surviving spouse and blood relatives. This may unintentionally create dissent among family members. It can even put your spouse in the awkward and costly position of petitioning the courts every time expenditures are needed in the name of your children.
- Reducing Taxes: without proper estate planning, you may end up MAXIMIZING taxes collected by the government and MINIMIZING the amount that is delivered to your surviving family – with no direction given on how it is to be used. Estate planning gives you control over the distribution of your assets.
Estate planning can even be a smart investment: in many cases the fees for estate planning are tax deductible. In the case of high net worth estates, the tax savings alone can more than offset any associated fees. Our initial meetings will help to determine this.
When should your estate plan be revised?
Every day, changes in your life may affect your estate plan, long after it is put in place.
These can include:
- Marriage – your own or one of your adult children;
- Birth – making guardianship an immediate concern;
- Divorce – revising their estate plan is often the last step when two people part. Once a marriage is dissolved, the ability to pass your estate to your spouse without taxation is lost. Other vehicles to minimize taxes need to be explored immediately upon divorce.
- Changes in net worth or financial outlook – both increases and decreases may affect how your estate should be structured. Changes in your real estate holdings, your overall investments or retirement objectives, or a new job may all indicate that you could benefit from the use of sophisticated wills and trusts to minimize taxes.
You put a great deal of effort into establishing your life and security. A little planning can help insure that you provide the greatest benefit possible for those that matter most to you.
The Coming Change in Estate Tax – Could your existing plans put your estate at risk?
Sweeping changes in the U.S. estate tax further underscore the fact that nearly everyone should have their estate plan reviewed to avoid unnecessary taxes.
Legislation passed in 2001 repealed the estate tax in the year 2010, but a proposal is underway that may change that:
| Year | U.S. Estate Tax: No tax on the first… | Highest Estate Tax Rate |
| 2009 | $3,500,000 | 45% |
| 2010 | CURRENT: Estate tax repealed PROPOSED: $5,000,000 | 0% 35% |
| 2011+ | $1,000,000 | 55% |
The impact? Sophisticated wills and trusts may be needed to reduce the impact of the inheritance tax.
In addition, plans that you currently have in place might need to be changed. In 2011, they will likely need to be revised again. My approach is to help determine in advance what structures will benefit you in each year. Then when the time comes, it’s a simple matter of signing a new document that is already drafted. This saves you legal fees and valuable time.
I will help you identify your options and consider what you wish to accomplish (such as skipping generations and passing assets directly to grandchildren). Accordingly, this will vary according to your individual circumstances and is why an in-depth review is always advisable.
I invite you to contact me for a complimentary consultation, or learn more about my work as an estate planning and trusts attorney.
After a very stressful divorce, I wanted to protect my children and insure a responsible transfer of assets to them if I should pass away. But it was also important that the documents not dismiss their father’s continuing financial responsibilities.
Ira’s compassion and depth of knowledge on these matters provided a strong sense of security for me. He did more than help prepare a new estate plan. Ira helped secure my children’s future.”
Victoria Coletti
Englewood, New Jersey