Working
with Professional
Advisors
Preparing a comprehensive
estate plan is something that involves many aspects of one's personal and
business affairs, and we encourage the involvement of other professional
advisors who have earned your confidence, such as your financial planner,
accountant, investment manager, tax advisor, insurance agent, bank trust
office, etc. We can also recommend professional advisors to you if you do
not presently have one in a given field from among those we have worked
with in the past; we do not accept referral fees for any such
recommendations.
Because the attorney-client
privilege may be lost when meeting with you in the presence of a
non-lawyer
advisor, there may be times during which we will meet with you without
anyone else present. |
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The Estate Planning Process
A complete estate plan
focuses not on merely death and taxes but rather on what people and
values are important to you and how you wish to remember them after
you pass on. It will include discussion and decisions on a lot of hard
questions, such as guardianship choices for minor children or yourself
as an incapacitated adult; an advance health care directive indicating
the types of medical treatment you would wish to receive when faced
with a potentially life-ending condition; a health care power of
attorney authorizing someone near and dear to you to make health care
decisions (in conformity with your health care directive wishes if you
sop specify) in the event you are unable to do so; and a durable power
of attorney and designation of guardian authorizing a capable and
trusted friend or relative to handle your financial affairs (to
whatever extent you may specify in the power document itself) in the
event of your disability or incapacity and naming you own legal
guardian should one become necessary.
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Beyond Document Drafting
The array of choices facing the estate
planning candidate these days is truly mind boggling. Congress has
passed EGTRRA which provides for gradually decreasing estate taxes
until 2010, after which point the draconian tax rates of pre-1999
resurface. Historic language used for years in funding the traditional
"A-B" trust may now mean that the surviving spouse gets all
with no assurances that the children will receive anything,
particularly if the surviving spouse remarries. In the meantime, each
year Congress looks at permanent repeal with one eye while another eye
watches the Federal budged deficit increase. Our transient population
may result in a person executing a will valid in one jurisdiction and
moving into another without updating it only to have the descendant's personal representative discover latent defects in the new
jurisdiction. Living wills and advance health care directives valid in
one state may not be honored when needed as the result of an accident
or illness in another jurisdiction - if indeed a medical team
elsewhere is even aware of its existence.
We have ways of minimizing or even
eliminating such uncertainties in your estate plan, and will be happy
to discuss them with you at our initial meeting.
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