Start your estate planning journey

Take stock of where you are now by creating an inventory of your current assets, liabilities, insurance policies, and legal documents. Among other benefits, taking this step will help you identify assets in which your finances are concentrated. These assets could include employer stock, a business entity, or a real estate position.

Once you have a better idea of where your finances stand, you can start mapping out strategies for your specific goals and wishes in passing on your assets. For some, the number one goal may be minimizing taxes and maximizing the transfer of assets to your beneficiaries. For others, it may be leaving a legacy via charitable giving or charting a future path for a family business. Take time to decide what matters most to you, so you can take the steps you need to help achieve your estate planning goals.

To carry out your estate planning goals in the most efficient and effective ways possible, you and your financial advisor may want to consult with an attorney and/or tax advisor. Together, they can help create a plan that is unique to how you want your legacy to continue for generations to come. And this is particularly important for the complex estate planning scenarios facing many high-net-worth investors.

An estate planning attorney can help you draw up your last will and testament, in which you designate a guardian for your minor children and outline how you want your estate to be distributed. Wills can also include provisions that create trusts in the event of your death, which may help you protect your assets and reduce your tax burden.

Professionals can also help with other essential aspects of your estate plan, including establishing a financial durable power of attorney, which designates someone to make financial decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. They can also review your life insurance policies to help ensure they align with other solutions in your estate plan. 

An estate planning professional can help you decide if a trust is appropriate for your estate plan. Trusts are written agreements that allow a designated third party, called a trustee, to hold assets on behalf of your beneficiaries. In some cases, it may make sense for the trustee to also be a beneficiary. Trusts give you a high degree of control over the way your assets are passed down and can help you minimize the amount your beneficiaries pay in taxes and time spent in probate. But trusts come in many different shapes and sizes, and a professional can help you decide which one is most appropriate for your goals.

If you’re a high-net-worth individual, you may want to incorporate charitable giving into your estate planning to achieve your philanthropic goals. You can make gifts to charitable organizations through specific bequests in your will, charitable trusts, or naming charities as beneficiaries of your retirement accounts or life insurance policies. In addition to supporting meaningful causes, charitable estate planning may also reduce your tax liability.

For business owners, estate planning may also include business succession planning. Some of the most important things to consider when determining your business succession plan are who you want to own and manage your business and how you want to transfer ownership and leadership responsibilities. With the help of an attorney or tax advisor, you may want to consider certain trusts that will allow any subsequent growth of your assets to pass outside your taxable estate.