Estate Planning Dialogue

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

At times, discussions with family members and parents regarding estate planning may be stressful, emotional, and difficult.  However, the discomfort cannot compare to the pain felt in dying without implementing estate planning strategies.  When you rely on state governments to distribute your assets for you, your heirs may experience time delays and probate costs that may render them financially unstable.

So to ensure a life-changing and effective discussion, you must suggest a dialogue with your siblings or other concerned family members.  Arrange a convenient location and time, choose a comfortable setting, and of course, limit distractions.  It would also help to encourage an honest and open airing of goals and issues to stress that the discussion is very important.  Most definitely, everybody must implement an effective plan to serve the needs and wishes of all.

This is a very challenging task especially for the elderly parents who are initiating the discussion.  But this is needed to provide more control to the estate owner.  All issues must be discussed and understood by every family member.  They should also know the availability of legal documents including wills and trusts and use them as tools to have a successful discussion and ultimate peace of mind for everyone.

Tags: dialogue, discussion, elderly, Estate Planning, goals, owner, plan, probate, strategies, tools, trusts, Wills
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Trust Amendment

Monday, September 28th, 2009

All good estate plans are designed to accommodate and anticipate changes.  The owner reserves the right to amend or revoke the trust in part or in whole.  And the most common amendment done by the owner is changing the trust asset distribution.  It’s so common for people to delete or add beneficiaries or even to adjust the amount or percentage that the beneficiary will receive.  Also, another common change is to change the order or names of successor trustees.

Because it’s so easy to amend any trust, some people are doing it on a regular basis.  There are some trusts with seven or more amendments.  But sometimes, it’s easier to just replace the whole trust instead of amending it several times. 

However, some people don’t like the thought of doing the trust all over again because it’s a bit daunting.  In a new trust, all assets titled in the first trust’s name needs to be transferred to the new one.  And it could be too much work to re-title assets.

So instead of creating a new trust, you can just restate it.  The great thing about this is: you don’t need to re-title the assets of your old trust.  A trust restatement is already funded, and could simple replace the original trust.

Tags: asset, assets, beneficiaries, estate plans, Family Trust, owner, trust, trust amendent, trust restatement
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