Estate planning should be an essential
part of every investor's financial plan. No matter how
large or how small your estate may be, there will always
be important factors to take into consideration.
Our main job when helping you design an estate plan is
to properly organize the resources of your estate so
that you may adequately provide for the present and
future needs of the surviving family. In the next few
paragraphs, we will help you understand the 5 steps to
effective estate planning.
Step #1: Gather the Facts
In order for a financial planner
to help you design the proper estate plan for your family,
he/she will need to put together a financial inventory
containing all of the most pertinent facts. This
inventory may include such things as: age, relationship,
health, education, and occupation of each family member.
The plan will also outline the facts regarding property
owned by each person, as well as, complete details regarding
the intent of distribution of the assets, which includes
beneficiaries to be named in the wills and trusts, as well
as, beneficiaries to be named in life insurance policies and
retirement plans. In addition, the estate owner's
financial objectives should be clearly stated in the plan.
Step #2: Analyze the Facts
After all the facts have been
gathered, it is then the financial planner's responsibility
to analyze how effective the plan would work in the event of
one of the estate owner's death. We will need to
consider how much cash will be needed to pay any debts,
estate administration costs, estate taxes, and the cash to be given
to heirs.
The analysis should also reveal
the suitability of the estate owner's assets, and the
ability for those assets to provide the surviving family
members with an income consistent with their needs. We
will also need to look at any business arrangements the
owner may have, and determine if a buy-sell agreement is
necessary to provide fair compensation to the surviving
owners, spouse, or beneficiaries.
Step #3: Formulate and
Select the Estate Plan
The next step will be to design
and select the proper estate planning techniques to match
the estate owner's intentions. We will need to analyze
exactly how the estate owner's assets will pass to the
estate, how assets will pass outside the probate estate by
reason of law, and how assets will pass outside the probate
estate under the terms of a contract.
We will also need to look at the
value of using a will or trust. It will also be a good
idea to look at when we should advise the owner to hold on
to certain assets until death, and see if there is an
effective method of giving away these assets outright during
life.
Step #4: Implement the
Estate Plan
After a comprehensive estate plan
is developed, it will be the estate owner's decision on
whether or not they would like to implement the plan.
This step may include making present gifts or purchasing
additional life insurance or annuities. It may also
require preparing, with the assistance of an attorney, new
trusts, deeds, contracts, or a will.
Step #5: Perform Periodic
Reviews of the Plan
The final step of the estate
planning process will be reviewing the plan periodically.
There will most likely be several changes and amendments
necessary to carry the plan through to the end.
At O'Neil Financial, we will work
with you and your family every step of the way to make sure
your estate is delivered to your beneficiaries exactly the
way you intended.
If you would like O'Neil
Financial to take a look at your current estate plan, as
well as share some of our thoughts on the latest estate
planning techniques, then
click here for a free consultation.
Securities and advisory services are offered
through Multi-Financial
Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC, an
ING Company.
O'Neil Financial is not affiliated with Multi-Financial Securities Corporation
or ING. Investment products and advisory services
from these registered representative(s) available only to residents of California (CA), Florida (FL),
Illinois (IL),
Maryland (MD), Michigan (MI), and Wisconsin (WI).
