Estate Planning

Overview

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We feel that estate planning is an extremely important issue for everyone.

A complete estate planning analysis should be done to evaluate your potential estate tax exposure. The JSK staff will help explore all your options carefully to make sure the disposition of your estate is adequately planned for, with the least amount of estate taxes and administrative costs incurred. A review of your existing legal documents, such as wills and trusts, will be done to make sure they are drafted properly and are in harmony with your overall estate plan. In addition, we also explore other estate planning strategies, such as the execution of living wills and/or living trusts and making transfers of property during your lifetime.

First, there is the living side of estate planning. This includes such issues as 'What happens in the event of an accident or illness requiring medical decisions to be made on your behalf?' It is imperative that the proper documentation exist to create an agent that can speak up on your behalf, and express your wishes to a doctor or medical facility.

Most people assume that a medical facility will follow their wishes or honor the requests of other family members regarding the type and quality of care (i.e., who treats you, how do they treat you, where do they treat you), but in fact this is not true. Without a designated agent, you may find yourself involved in litigation with a hospital while lying in bed ill.

Another important issue is the management of your assets while you are away on a trip or taken ill. Without the proper estate planning tools, a person's family may not make changes or move to protect assets in times of crisis, unless proper legal arrangements have been made.

Looking further down the road of life, we must consider the impact of long term illness and aging. Without an estate plan, all that you have worked for and sacrificed to save during your life may become the property of a nursing home, or be completely depleted by custodial medical care costs. On the other hand, with proper planning, this can be minimized or even avoided completely.

Items such as Stand By trusts and nursing home insurance can be combined to provide an integrated plan. Also, the costs of such plans, especially nursing home insurance, must be compared to ensure that you get the most coverage for the least cost.

Another important issue is what happens to your family's financial security if you should pass away suddenly and prematurely. Is the income adequate, does your family have a complete understanding of their financial situation, and who will be there to advise them?

These are just some of the issues that comprise the living side of estate planning. We provide our clients with not only the knowledge of estate planning, but also with the proper legal documents with which to build a proper financial affairs plan, and there is no extra cost for this.

The second half of estate planning deals with the proper disposition of assets at death, and minimizing the effects of taxation. Most people we speak with automatically assume that they don't have an estate tax problem. The reality is that 99 out of 100 people's assets are significantly depleted by estate tax and settlement costs.

First there is the State and their Death Tax. Then the lawyers and their filing fees. And finally, the Federal Government.

The Federal government will tax anything above $2,000,000 at a minimum rate of 37%. If we consider the value of:

Life insurance

Your home

The lump sum value of your pension

The amount of your savings

and the growth in their value during your lifetime, you can quickly exceed this $1,000,000 limit.

Upon settlement, the government wants cash, not securities or other items. This often increases the settlement costs, because forced liquidations may be required to pay the tax bill.

These are just some reasons why we feel that estate planning is so important, and we are committed to designing a proper estate plan for each of our clients and their families