Essentials: Who Needs to Plan their Estate?

EVERYONE

Although many are deceived by believing that planning your estate is only for the rich and the wealthy, planning is for ANYONE who has acquire any tangible assets and desire to plan what happens to those assets once one passes on.
In fact, in many cases it is more critical for normal, everyday folk to plan ahead, because delays, additional cost and conflicts often have a more detrimental impact when the amounts in question are more humble than substantial in monetary worth. Normal folks have basic life needs and day-to-day situations which can not always absorb the cost and time delays resulting from failing to plan.

Creators: If you are an inventor, writer, author, painter, photographer, or any other type of creator, then you have special planning needs. What happens to your works when you are gone? Who holds the rights to revenues from your works? Who is authorized to handle the administration of your works after you are no longer available? You should have a written plan in place that addresses all these specific questions. In most cases the very nature of what you create dictates that there are exclusive intellectual property rights that by design extend beyond your lifetime. It is critical to your business of bring a creator to have a thorough understanding of these elements of your business and craft.

Married Couples: Each individual partner must have their own individual will. Having joint wills will almost always cause legal problems if one or both of you pass on in a short period, or within weeks or months of being married to one another.

Divorced Couples: Need to establish a trust to ensure protection over your own children. This is even more important if you do not want your former spouse's new partner to receive any of your assets for themselves or for his or her children.

Entrepreneurs, Business Owners & Professional Service Providers: It is vital to your long term survival that your business develop a written Succession Plan that specifically shares what you want to happen to your business or the equity in your business when you pass. Efforts should be taken to make sure that the business will have the necessary capital to execute your plans for transition.

Future Millionaires: At the time when this is being written, the estate tax provides for an exemption for estates valued at $3.5 million and below. This exemption has historically been $1 million and based on Congressional action may revert back to the historic $1 million dollar exemption in 2011. As a simple reference, if your estate currently totals $1 million or more - or has the ability to grow to exceed $1 million dollars in the future, you need to establish a solid estate plan to prevent paying 45% or more of the non-exempt amount to the government in taxes.