Legacy Planning Services

Legacy planning is the process of planning for the distribution of your assets and wealth after your death. It is important for everyone, regardless of the size of your estate, because it allows you to ensure that your assets are distributed in accordance with your wishes rather than leaving it to chance or probate courts.

Each family has a unique story and circumstances. It takes careful planning, discussion, and guidance to develop a legacy plan that achieves your personal goals and establishes an enduring impact on the lives of family members or a cherished cause. We work closely with our clients to design and execute appropriate strategies for your overall Estate Planning, with specific expertise in areas including Gifting, Wealth Protection, Charitable Giving, and Tax Minimization.

Everyone can benefit from meeting with an estate planning attorney to talk about Legacy Planning, as it can help you ensure that your assets are distributed in accordance with your wishes and in ways that correctly navigate all legal stipulations. Absolutely anyone with assets or dependents should start the process of estate planning, regardless of your net worth. While it can seem costly and like it’s not an immediate need, if you don’t have a plan and unforeseen circumstances do occur, you lose your ability to dictate what happens to your assets and affairs. You would leave your family scrambling and navigating a much more complicated path, which we’ve seen can include losing a lot of time and money in court and family divisions. We work in conjunction with your estate planning attorney to help make sure your assets go to who you want them to go to, in the most tax efficient manner.

Each family has a unique story. It takes careful planning, discussion, and guidance to develop a plan that achieves personal goals

ESTATE PLANNING

Estate planning is the process of organizing your affairs and making plans for the management and distribution of your assets after your death. It involves a range of legal and financial considerations, and can include things like creating a will or trust, designating beneficiaries, power of attorney, advance healthcare directive, and making plans for the care of minor children or dependents.

Estate planning is unique to every single person, and since you are planning for circumstances you likely don’t yet know (future kids, changes in finances, buying and selling of property), we take the time to fully understand your wants, needs, and other variables.

We can help you think through the best estate planning tactics from the investment side of the equation, and then coordinate with a licensed estate planning attorney to make sure the plan is executed in accordance with your wishes.

GIFTING

Legacy Gifting is a way to pass on assets or wealth to future generations or charitable organizations through gifting during your lifetime or through your Estate Plan. There are a few different ways to incorporate Legacy Gifting into your Estate Plan, including:

Charitable Giving: Charitable giving is a way to support causes you care about and make a positive impact on the world. There are several ways you can incorporate charitable giving into your estate plan: you can designate a charitable beneficiary, donate assets, or create a charitable trust. This can be a way to support causes you are passionate about and potentially reduce your tax burden.
Gifts to Family Members: You can make gifts to family members during your lifetime (which may be ideal if you want to decrease what gets taxed later) or through your Estate Plan. This can be a way to provide financial support to your loved ones and future generations while potentially reducing the size of your estate for tax purposes. The configurations for how you set up gifts to family are endless, and we can help you brainstorm effective ways of doing this.
Trusts: You can set up trusts to hold assets for the benefit of family members or charitable organizations. A trust is a legal arrangement in which one person (the grantor) transfers assets to another person (the trustee) to hold and manage for the benefit of a third person (the beneficiary). There are many different types of trusts used to fit different needs. We can work with your estate planning attorney to figure out which is best for you.

Anyone with assets or wealth to pass on should consider legacy gifting as a way to support their loved ones and causes they care about, and by working with your estate planning attorney, we can also help you make purposeful decisions to best navigate family specifics and minimize the tax implications.

WEALTH PROTECTION

Wealth Protection is a key consideration in Legacy Planning, as it involves protecting your assets and wealth for the benefit of your loved ones and future generations. We can help you create a plan to protect your wealth in a number of ways, including:

Asset protection trusts: An asset protection trust is a trust that is designed to protect your assets from creditors, lawsuits, and other potential threats. This type of trust can be created during your lifetime or through your estate plan.
Business succession planning: If you own a business, we can help you create a plan to ensure that the business is passed on to your successors in a smooth and tax-efficient manner.
Long-term care planning: We can help you create a plan to protect your assets in the event that you need long-term care in the future. This can include strategies such as the use of long-term care insurance or the creation of a Medicaid trust.*
Estate tax planning: We can help you minimize estate taxes and preserve more of your wealth for your beneficiaries. This can include strategies such as the use of trusts, charitable giving, and the proper use of exemptions and deductions.

By working together, we can create a plan to protect your wealth and ensure that it is passed on to your loved ones in a way that meets your goals and complies with the law.

CHARITABLE GIVING

Charitable giving is a way to support causes you care about and make a positive impact on the world. We can help you incorporate charitable giving into your legacy plan in a number of ways, including:

Donate assets: You can donate assets such as cash, securities, real estate, or personal property to charitable organizations during your lifetime or through your estate plan.
Create a charitable trust: You can set up a charitable trust to hold assets for the benefit of a charitable organization. There are several different types of charitable trusts, and we can help you choose the one that best meets your needs.
Designate a charitable beneficiary: You can designate a charitable organization as a beneficiary of your estate or of certain assets, such as a life insurance policy or retirement account.
Donor Advised Funding: This is a common strategy used in which you donate appreciated securities to a donor advised fund. You get an immediate tax deduction but can leave the assets/funds in the donor advised fund until you want to give a donation/gift. This way you won’t pay capital gains taxes on appreciated securities and can take a larger tax deduction in the current year.

Charitable giving can provide numerous benefits, including the satisfaction of supporting causes you care about, the potential for tax savings, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the world. We can help you create a charitable giving plan that meets your goals and complies with tax law.

TAX MINIMIZATION

Tax minimization is a key consideration in legacy planning, as it involves reducing the amount of taxes that will be paid on your estate or gifts. We can help you minimize taxes in a number of ways, including:

Use exemptions and deductions: There are various exemptions and deductions available that can help reduce the amount of taxes that are due on your estate. We can help you take advantage of these exemptions and deductions to minimize taxes.
Use trusts: Trusts can be used to hold assets for the benefit of your beneficiaries and can help minimize taxes in a number of ways. For example, a credit shelter trust can be used to take advantage of the federal estate tax exemption, and a charitable trust can be used to reduce taxes while supporting a charitable cause.
Use life insurance: Life insurance can be used to provide funds to pay estate taxes or other expenses, and the proceeds of a life insurance policy are generally tax-free. We can help you determine whether life insurance is a good option for your situation.
Make Gifts during your lifetime: You can make Gifts to your beneficiaries during your lifetime using the annual gift tax exclusion, which allows you to give up to $17,000 per recipient per year in 2023 without incurring gift tax.

By working with us, you can create a plan to minimize taxes and preserve more of your wealth for your loved ones. We are here to help implement your estate plan from a wealth management perspective, and will work in conjunction with your estate planning attorney who will handle the estate plan from the legal side.*

*We do not hold ourselves out as licensed attorneys nor do we give any legal advice.