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| ESTATE
PLANNING |
Simplicity is a
sensible goal in estate planning. It is
important to try and keep your financial affairs
and your estate plans simple, yet adequate to
accomplish the goals. Here are some keys to
think about.
If you own stock, put all your stock in a
brokerage account. There is little advantage to
keeping stock certificates in your home or safe
deposit box. They can get lost, and then you
have to post a bond to get them replaced. Plus,
when stock is held in a brokerage account you
will get accustomed to a monthly report of what
assets you have, what kind of yield you are
getting, and what changes in value take place
over a long period.
Everyone should have a Durable Power of Attorney
and a Health Care Power of Attorney. You never
know when one might be needed.
You can set up your affairs so you can avoid
probate, but you should still have a will to
take care of things that might go through
probate.
We all grow older, and as we get older, our
circumstances change. Some older people are
willing to accept the changes in their lives.
Others hold on and resist to the bitter end any
changes in their lives that reflect the real
world. It is not always advisable to remain in
your home. Try to prepare yourself and your
family for what might happen by talking about
possible changes before they happen. If a move
to an assisted living center is coming, it is
better to do it before you think you need to. It
is a harder transition if someone feels forced
rather than it being a choice. A positive
attitude is a wonderful help. A negative
attitude will take its toll on all members of
the family.
Make funeral plans, and make arrangements to pay
for them now. If that is something you aren’t up
to, then at least give someone an idea of what
kind of funeral arrangements you would prefer.
It makes it a whole lot easier on everyone.
Don't throw away your income tax returns
immediately after filing. Keep them for at least
5 years or longer.
If you do investing, only use a reputable
broker. Do not get involved with a fly-by-night
individual. There are crooks out there who will
take your money and not invest it for you, but
will spend it on themselves.
Trusts become more important where combined
assets exceed $500,000.00 or so. Under that,
keep it simple.
Different people have different estate planning
needs. You may think that because a close friend
has a trust, that you should also have one.
There are attorneys who seem to recommend a
trust for every client who attends the seminar
and decides to talk with the attorney afterward.
The price will usually be excessive. We have
seen some estate planners who do separate deeds
for each parcel of real estate being transferred
to the trust. This is a senseless and wasteful
practice. All the parcels being transferred to a
trust can be on one deed, unless the parcels are
in different counties. For example, if you had
five parcels on five separate deeds, you would
pay 5 times $28.00 for each 2 page deed. That
would cost $140.00 in recording fees. If the
parcels were all on one deed it would only be
$28.00. |
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