Estate Planning

Thinking about your death isn’t pleasant, but estate planning is the best way to ensure your loved ones get the inheritance you want them to receive. Whether you have a complicated estate with a high net worth and several holdings or are working to pay down your debt, estate planning benefits you and your family. 

Understanding Estate Planning

Estate planning is the official process of deciding what happens to your money and possessions when you die.
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Discussions about advanced care planning are difficult, but if you should become seriously ill, knowing your wishes will help your family cope with end-of-life decisions. Telling loved ones about your preferences is a good start. Putting those preferences in a legal document called an advanced directive is even better.

You take steps to safeguard your money and property in life. But did you know that you can also use your estate plan to protect your assets from creditors, lawsuits, and even beneficiaries who overspend?

When it comes to protecting your assets during the estate-planning process, it can be challenging to know where to start. Every estate is different, but you might want to consider some of these often-successful tactics:

Making Your Business a Limited Liability Company (LLC)

If you run a business and a creditor comes after you for business debts, they might go after your personal assets if your business can’t pay up.
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The holidays are a time to reconnect with family and close friends. But this year, as you’re putting together that Thanksgiving feast or decorating the tree, you should make time to discuss the important topic of estate planning.

Why should you discuss estate planning during the holidays? It might seem counterintuitive and even a little gauche, but there are numerous reasons why the holidays are the perfect time to start talking to loved ones about planning your estate.

If you have recently experienced the death of a spouse, you know that the grief can be all-consuming. But as your grief begins to subside, you might find that the more mundane tasks associated with loss begin to surface. And one of those tasks is updating your estate plan.
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Starting and running a business takes serious commitment and excitement for your product or service — and when you run a family business, your loved ones may share your sentiments and want to partake in the business.

When you’re ready to make a plan to pass down your family business, an estate planning attorney can assist with creating a strong business succession plan. Take a look at these key tips to keep in mind for passing down your business to the next generation in California.
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The family-oriented community of Palm Springs is brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit, so it makes sense that many residents are interested in starting businesses. You may even be considering starting a family business. If so, the best way to go about it is often by creating a family limited partnership (FLP).

With a family business, it can be tempting to think that you and your family members can make your own informal agreement, but doing so can lead to financial, emotional, and familial disaster. A written agreement drafted by an experienced estate planning attorney can offer you and your family the security you need to protect your futures.
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If you are concerned about a family member or loved one being unable to make responsible and healthy decisions for themselves, you may be wondering if there’s a legal way to allow another individual to guide their actions.

Likewise, if you’re concerned that you may at some point be subject to illness or injury, you may want to preemptively appoint an individual to make decisions for you, should the worst occur.

This is where a power of attorney (POA) comes in. There are many reasons why an individual might need to obtain control of another person’s assets and decisions, and there are also legal ways to achieve this.

Even if you are already making decisions for your family member or loved one, or a loved one is making decisions for you, there are many benefits to making the situation legally sound with a power of attorney authorization.
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A living trust is a popular estate planning option for individuals with considerable assets looking to provide for multiple generations, as well as for those seeking to avoid paying estate taxes. No matter why you choose to create a living trust, the trust will only work if it has assets.

A living trust is an entity that can acquire, hold, and dispose of assets in its name to fulfill the purposes of the trust.
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Marrying another individual who has children from a previous marriage presents various unique considerations. The same can be said when you have children from a previous relationship yourself.

One such consideration involves your assets and what happens to them after you die. Without an estate plan, intestate succession dictates the distribution of your assets.

If you do not yet have an estate plan, it is vital to understand how the laws of intestate succession will apply to your blended family and how you can create a comprehensive estate plan to secure your family’s future.

Hopefully, you will live to a ripe old age and watch your children grow from tiny tykes to wonderful, thriving adults. Sadly, life doesn’t always go the way you want it to; there is a chance, no matter how small, that you won’t survive to see your children grow up.

As much as you might not want to think about this possibility, it is one that you should plan for if you want to protect your children. The simplest way to plan for this outcome is to arrange for guardians in case of your demise.

Choosing the Right Guardians

As soon as you have your first child, you choose guardians in case anything happens to you.
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