Estate Planning Info - Plan to Prosper!

What is an Estate Plan? An "estate plan" is an arrangement for the conservation, investment, use, management, and transfer of a person's property, both during the person's lifetime and after the person's death. The process by which a person's property is arranged so as to gain the maximum benefits of pertinent laws while carrying out the person's wishes for transfer of the property to others is called "estate planning".

What does an Estate Plan achieve? A well thought out estate plan will seek to achieve a variety of objectives. In the typical case, an estate plan will seek to do the following:

1) Create an estate, where none exists, by maximizing opportunities for savings and investment;

2) Conserve an estate, where one already exists, by improving investment and savings techniques and optimizing tax savings opportunities;

3) Create conditions under which the client can optimize use of the estate during the client's lifetime, in accordance with the client's personal preferences and lifestyle;

4) Make plans for the management of the client's property if and when the client should become disabled or incapacitated;

5) Transfer a part of the property to persons or entities of the client's choice during the client's lifetime, to the extent that the client wishes to make such transfers; and

6) Transfer the balance of the property to persons or entities of the client's choice after the client's death.