Estate Planning For Dummies E-Book

N. Brian Caverly

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 588

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Planning for your family's future made easy! If you're like most people, you want to be sure that, once you've passed on, no more of your property and money will be lost to the government than is absolutely necessary. You want to know that you'll be leaving your heirs your assets and not your debts. You want to be absolutely certain that your will is ship-shape, your insurance policies are structured properly, and that every conceivable hole in your estate plan has been filled. And most of all, you'd like to do all of this without driving yourself crazy trying to make sense of the complicated jargon, jumble of paperwork, and welter of state and federal laws involved in the estate planning process. Written by two estate planning pros, this simple, easy-to-use guide takes the pain out of planning for your ultimate financial future. In plain English, the authors walk you step-by-step through everything you need to know to: * Put your estate into order * Minimize estate taxes * Write a proper will * Deal with probate * Set up trusts * Make sure your insurance policies are structured properly * Plan for special situations, like becoming incompetent and pet care * Craft a solid estate plan and keep it up-to-date Don't leave the final disposition of your estate up to chance and the whims of bureaucrats. Estate Planning For Dummies gives you the complete lowdown on: * Figuring out what you're really worth * Mastering the basics of wills and probate * Using will substitutes and dodging probate taxes * Setting up protective trusts, charitable trusts, living trusts and more * Making sense of state and federal inheritance taxes * Avoiding the generation skipping transfer tax * Minimizing all your estate-related taxes * Estate planning for family businesses * Creating a comprehensive estate plan Straightforward, reader-friendly, easy-to-use, Estate Planning For Dummies is the ultimate guide to planning your family's future.

Leseprobe

Estate Planning For Dummies®

by N. Brian Caverly and Jordan S. Simon

Estate Planning For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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ISBN: 978-0-7645-5501-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

N. Brian Caverly, Esq., is a practicing lawyer in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his principal office in Wilkes-Barre. He has practiced law since 1968 and in his practice emphasizes wills and estates, estate planning, and elder law. He is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with an AB degree in economics, and from the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a JD degree. He serves on the board of directors of the Angeline Elizabeth Kirby Memorial Health Center in Wilkes-Barre, a charitable organization. Brian is also chairman of the Luzerne County Planning Commission. He presents lectures and writes articles and papers about various legal topics, including those related to estate planning.

Jordan S. Simon is vice president of asset management at Venture West, Inc., a Tucson, Arizona-based investment firm, where he has worked since 1988. Jordan focuses on real estate investments. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and his MBA from the University of Southern California, where he was the recipient of the Quon Award for outstanding university and community service. Jordan is the co-author of The Computer Professional’s Guide to Effective Communications.

Dedication

To my wife Anne; my children Jessica, Kelly, and Brenna; and my grandchildren Collin, Diarmid, and Fiona (and those to come)

— N. Brian Caverly

To my parents Sandra and Bernard Simon; Credit; and Meghan for their time, love and support.

— Jordan S. Simon

Authors’ Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their invaluable assistance with this book:

— Our agent Matt Wagner of Waterside Productions

— Cathy Levi for administrative assistance with the book’s manuscript

— Lewis W. Wetzel, Esq., John C. Eichorn, Esq., and David J. Harris, Esq., for their sage counsel and advice

— Our anonymous technical reviewer (an attorney from Indiana who emphasizes estate planning) whose comments and suggestions helped us shape the book’s contents

— Alan Simon (Jordan’s brother), the author of Stock Options For Dummies and Data Warehousing For Dummies, who helped us create an engaging and sometimes entertaining book (at least we hope so!) about an often dry and occasionally sobering subject

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Contents

Title

Introduction

Who Needs This Book

How to Use This Book

How This Book is Organized

Icons Used in This Book

Part I : Estate Planning Fundamentals

Chapter 1: Congratulations: You Have an Estate!

What Is an Estate?

Why You Need to Plan Your Estate

Why Your Estate-Planning Goals Are Different from Your Neighbors’

Why Estate-Planning Lingo Is Not Really a Foreign Language

The Critical Path Method to Planning Your Estate

Getting Help with Your Estate Planning

Chapter 2: Bean Counting — Figuring Out What You’re Worth

Calculating the Value of Your Real Property

Calculating the Value of Everything Else: Your Personal Property

Dead Reckoning: Subtracting Your Debts from Your Assets

Giving Gifts Throughout Your Life to Reduce Your Estate’s Value

Calculating Adjustments in Your Estate’s Value Due to Life Changes

Part II : Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Chapter 3: Understanding the Basics of Wills

Planning for Your Will

Getting to Know the Different Types of Wills

Choosing Your Will’s Contents

Safeguarding Your Will

Changing, Amending, and Revoking Your Will

Protecting Your Loved Ones from Your Unloved Ones

Figuring Out Your Will Status

Chapter 4: Tied Hands and Helping Hands: What You Can and Can’t Do with Your Will

Making Your Peace with Statutes That Affect Your Will

Identifying Statutes that Your Will Can Change

Living (and Dying) with the Laws that Your Will Can’t Change

Chapter 5: Probate: Top of the Ninth for Your Estate

Probing Probate: What You Should Know

Knowing the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Probate

Streamlining the Probate Process

Appointing Your Person In Charge

Thinking Things Through When Someone Asks You To Be a Personal Rep

Chapter 6: Dodging Probate: Saving Time and Money with a Will Substitute

Understanding Will Substitutes

Sorting through the List of Will Substitutes

Identifying Some Less Common but Worthy Will Substitutes

Part III : Matters of Trust

Chapter 7: Understanding Trusts

Defining Trusts, Avoiding Hype

Trust Power — Making Your Beneficiaries Smile

Sorting Out Trusts — from Here to Eternity

Chapter 8: Trusts You May Want to Trust — or Not

Saying “I Do” to a Marriage-Oriented Trust

Considering Charitable Trusts

Protecting Your Estate With Protective Trusts

GRAT, GRUT, GRIT: Chewing over the Grantor-Retained Trusts

Sidestepping Estate Taxes with an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust

Chapter 9: Working a Trust Into Your Estate Plan

Linking Your Estate-Related Tax Planning with Your Trust Planning

Looking at Your Goals and Objectives for Setting up Trusts

Deciding What Property to Place in Trust

Linking Your Estate-Planning and Trust Goals with Specific Property

Stepping Back and Comparing Both Trust and Nontrust Options

Weighing Trust Tradeoffs

Finalizing Your Choices — Dotting I’s and Crossing T’s

Part IV : Life, Death, and Taxes

Chapter 10: Preparing for the Tug of War with the Taxman

Navigating through the Bermuda Triangle of Federal Taxes

Deciphering State Inheritance and Estate Taxes

Protecting Your Property (Including Home Sweet Home!) from the Estate Recovery Act

Chapter 11: The Gift Tax: Isn’t Giving a Gift Enough?

Giving a Gift: The Basics

Looking Inside Three Common Gift Tax Situations

Entering the Twilight Zone of Credits and Exclusions

Gift Splitting

Valuing Gifts

Filing Gift Tax Forms

Chapter 12: Skipping Around the Generation Skipping Transfer Tax

The GSTT: A Parable

Taking Comfort from the Exemption: A Cool Million and Rising

Playing Hopscotch: Understanding Generation-Skipping Transfers

Making Sense of GSTT Tax Rates

Looking Deeper into Generation-Skipping Transfers and the GSTT

Chapter 13: Paying or Not Paying the Death Tax: That’s the Question

Discovering Federal Estate Tax Basics

Digging Down to the Bottom Line

Choosing How to Pay Estate Taxes

Filing the Estate Tax Return

Stepping Up to the Plate and Filling the Bases (Basis)

Chapter 14: Planning to Minimize All Your Estate-Related Taxes

Figuring Out Where You Are Today

Fortune Telling: Picturing the Future as Best You Can

Hmmm . . . Deciding on Strategies and Tradeoffs

Putting Together a Comprehensive Estate-Related Tax Plan

Part V : Estate Planning for Family Businesses

Chapter 15: Grasping the Basics of Estate Planning for Family Businesses

Defining “Family Business”

Making the Critical Estate-Related Decisions Upfront

How the Form of Business Ownership Affects Your Estate

Calculating the Value of Your Family Business

Dealing with Business Evolution — Stuff Darwin Never Imagined

Chapter 16: Transferring Ownership and Paying Estate Taxes in a Family Business

Exploring the Ins and Outs of Buy-Sell Agreements

Transferring Ownership to a Family Member

Identifying Estate Tax Considerations for Family Businesses

Part VI : Crafting a Comprehensive Estate Plan

Chapter 17: Factoring Insurance into Your Estate Plan

Using Insurance to Protect Your Assets

Sorting Out the Kinds of Coverage You Need

Looking Closer at Life Insurance

Understanding Life Insurance Tax Implications

Asking the Right Estate-Related Questions About Insurance

Chapter 18: Connecting Your Retirement Funds to Your Estate Plans

Deciding What Your Nest Eggs Are Really For

Linking Retirement and Estate Planning: A Tough Job, But You Can Do It

Chapter 19: Estate Planning in Exceptional Situations

Working a Divorce into the Plan

Planning for Unmarried Relationships

Untangling the Complexities of Guardianship and Your Estate

Doomsday Stuff: Factoring Incompetence and Death into Your Plan

Taking Care of Fluffy, Spot, and Bootsie

Part VII : The Part of Tens

Chapter 20: Ten Questions to Get You Rolling on Your Estate Plan

Why Do I Even Need an Estate Plan?

If I Need an Estate Plan, Why Doesn’t Everyone Have One?

What Are My Top Three Estate-Planning Goals?

Whom Do I Want to Take Care Of?

What’s the Best Way to Protect My Children?

How Much Help Do I Need?

What’s My Budget for Estate Planning?

Does My Attorney Have the Right Experience?

Who Are My Confidants about These Plans?

How Do I Know I Can Do My Estate Plan?

Chapter 21: Avoiding Ten Common Mistakes and Problems in Your Will

Forgetting to Review Your Will Annually

Forgetting to Include a Residuary (“Leftovers”) Clause

Forgetting the “Just in Case” Contingencies

Sticking With Your Personal Representative When You Really Need a Substitute

Forgetting About All Those Pesky Statutes that Affect Wills

Getting Too Precise in Your Will

Using Your Beneficiaries as Will Witnesses

Failing to Factor in the Personal Side

Keeping Important Information From Your Attorney

Rushing Through Your Will

Chapter 22: Ten Estate-Planning Resources on the Internet

Smartmoney.com

Estateretirementplanning.com

Estateplanning.com

Savewealth.com

Moneycentral.msn.com

Estateplanforyou.com

Law.freeadvice.com

Actec.org

Nolo.com

Nafep.com

Introduction

Even The Sopranos are worried about estate planning. In a season-opening show of HBO’s wildly successful TV series, mob boss Tony Soprano finds himself nagged and pestered by his wife Carmela to work on the family’s estate planning. Keep in mind that Tony tells her that they have loads of money sitting in numbered overseas bank accounts, and in the same episode he’s stuffing bundles of cash into hiding places around his New Jersey estate. But Carmela isn’t satisfied; she’s worried about the future and how, if something happens to Tony (quite a possibility, in his line of work!), she and her two children will be cared for.

By the fourth episode, Carmela has Tony sitting down with her cousin, a financial planner, to discuss putting together an estate plan. By the fifth episode, they’re covering the pros and cons of irrevocable life insurance trusts, the downside of probate, and even intervivos trusts, which Tony calls “in vitro” trusts!

Your lifestyle and line of business (to put it delicately) may be different from the characters on The Sopranos. But guess what? You should have the same concerns that Carmela Soprano has, and you need to work on your estate planning...now!

Who Needs This Book

Estate planning applies to everyone, yet a surprising number of people either have only done a very small part of what they need to do (usually just creating a will, which very often is out-of-date) or perhaps have done absolutely no estate planning at all!

That’s where Estate Planning For Dummies comes in. This book is especially intended for you if you:

Have done very little or nothing on your estate planning so far, and feel so overwhelmed that you don’t know where to start

Have done bits and pieces of your estate planning but all those parts are disjointed, and you’re concerned that you have lots of holes in your estate planning

Are concerned that you may have serious shortcomings or even outright mistakes in what you’ve put in your will, how your insurance policies are structured, and other aspects of your estate planning

Have done a fair amount of work on your estate planning, but in a haphazard, undisciplined manner; you realize that estate planning is an ongoing, lifelong proposition and you want to become more disciplined in how you approach your will, estate tax planning, and all the rest

In short, Estate Planning For Dummies can help you no matter where you are in the estate-planning process.

How to Use This Book

Estate Planning For Dummies is written in easily understood language from cover to cover, with liberal use of examples. Some of the topics we cover are very basic — the estate-planning fundamentals we cover in Chapter 1, for example — while other material, such as the chapters on trusts, is more advanced and complicated.

If you’re considering estate planning for the first time, you may want to skim through the book cover to cover just to get an idea of what’s here, then settle down and use the book as a reference on specific topics as they come up. If you have had a bit more exposure to estate planning, you may want to selectively read certain chapters, and either skip or skim others. We recommend at least skimming every chapter, even if you currently have (for example) a will, a few trusts, and various types of insurance policies, and understand the basics pretty well.

How This Book is Organized

Estate Planning For Dummies is organized into seven parts. The chapters within each part cover specific topics in detail, as we describe below.

Part I: Estate Planning Fundamentals

The chapters in Part I cover the fundamentals, and are particularly appropriate for readers who are newcomers to estate planning. (But as we mention earlier, we recommend even those who have started estate planning to skim the chapters and pick up a tidbit or two with which they aren’t familiar or haven’t yet come across.)

Chapter 1 covers the estate-planning basics that you must understand before moving forward with the many different strategies and mechanisms we discuss in the rest of the book. After all, you need to understand what is in your estate (hint: probably more than you think is in your estate right now!), why you need to worry about estate planning (and what happens if you don’t), and — here’s some good news — how to build a team of estate-planning professionals to help you through it all.

Chapter 2, as we note in the chapter’s title, helps you figure out what your estate is worth. And the result will be, to repeat the hint we have for Chapter 1, “probably more than you think right now!” Your estate consists of different kinds of property, and we help you figure out how to calculate it all and to stay up-to-date on changes in your estate’s value.

Part II: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

The Part II chapters get right into the part of estate planning that you may or may not have already tackled: your will. But whether you already have a will or not, read through these chapters to see if you may have made any mistakes and need to rethink your strategy for your will.

Chapter 3 presents a comprehensive discussion of the basics of wills: how they’re structured, different ways in your will in which you can leave property to others, safekeeping for your will, and reasons you need to keep your will updated. We also discuss what happens if you die without a valid will, and believe us, it ain’t pretty!

Chapter 4 presents a topic that is probably going to be a surprise to many readers. You don’t have free reign to do anything you want in your will as you specify all the beneficiary conditions for your property. Your will is governed by your state’s statutes (laws), and we present an overview of the most common statutes and what they mean to your will. As a preview, if your will violates one or more of those statutes, your will may be partially or totally invalid!

Chapter 5 discusses a topic that most people have heard of but know very little about: probate. We discuss what probate is, how your estate goes through probate, and what part of your estate doesn’t go through probate. We also give you some practical tips to help you divide your overall estate between what goes through probate and what doesn’t, and what the respective advantages and disadvantages are.

Chapter 6 discusses the general topic of will substitutes, which are various ways you can own property and transfer ownership to others without that particular property going through probate. We look at the advantages and disadvantages of the most common types, such as living trusts and joint tenancy with the right of survivorship, and discuss many other types as well.

Part III: Matters of Trust

The three chapters in Part III help you gain a realistic sense of different types of trusts and which ones — if any — make sense for your estate planning. Trusts are the most complicated estate-planning topic that we cover, but we divide our discussion into three chapters so that you can take this topic step by step.

Part IV: Life, Death, and Taxes

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the federal estate tax, if only from the constant debate over whether or not there should be a “death tax.” But did you know that you may actually need to worry about several different types of estate-related taxes in addition to the federal estate tax?

In Chapter 10, we take a broad look at all these estate-related taxes — both federal and at the state level, if your state has either an estate or inheritance tax — and look at the changes that the 2001 tax law made to those taxes at the federal level.

In Chapter 11, we look at the gift tax (no, this tax isn’t a tax on Valentine’s Day or birthday presents!), including lots of ways to get around the gift tax. Most importantly, we look at the little-known (or at least little-understood) ways in which the gift tax is linked to the federal estate tax system and some tax-planning strategies you can use.

Chapter 12 looks at a tax that you most likely won’t have to worry about unless you’re very rich — the generation skipping transfer tax (GSTT). We give you the lowdown without the excruciating detail.

Chapter 13 discusses the so-called “death tax,” or the federal estate tax. Pay particular interest to how the 2001 tax law has turned the death tax into a moving target not unlike a midway booth at a carnival or the state fair. And, just like at a carnival or the state fair, you need to be very careful with your money and make sure you really understand the game you’re playing!

In Chapter 14, we present you with a step-by-step approach you can use to take all the tax information we present in the preceding chapters and put together a tax strategy that takes all these taxes into consideration.

Part V: Estate Planning for Family Businesses

Family businesses present a particular challenge to estate planning. Chances are that you’ve heard arguments against the federal estate tax that passionately claim that the “death tax” is the ruination of family businesses and farms. True, estate taxes can play havoc with family businesses, but they don’t have to.

In Chapter 15, we discuss the nuts and bolts of estate planning for various types of family businesses, including the most pressing estate-related issues such as succession planning.

In Chapter 16, we discuss various ways you can transfer your ownership in a family business to others and the respective advantages and disadvantages, as well as estate-tax concerns — and a few breaks and special considerations — that can help you keep your business in your family even if estate-related taxes come into play.

Part VI: Crafting a Comprehensive Estate Plan

In this part, we discuss three additional topics of concern to everyone’s estate planning. In Chapter 17 we look at how various types of insurance not only help you protect your estate, but also can fit into your estate planning by manufacturing cash. (No, we’re not talking about counterfeiting; check out our discussion.)

Chapter 18 discusses how your retirement planning and estate planning are closely related. What’s that? Right now your retirement planning isn’t related at all to your estate planning? Well, proceed to Chapter 18 for some practical, easy-to-accomplish tips.

Chapter 19 is sort of a collection of additional estate-planning topics that apply to nontraditional families (to introduce a theme we occasionally use, a family that doesn’t look like one out of a 1950s or early 1960s TV show with never-before-married parents and only their biological children) and non-traditional situations (being declared incompetent, for example). We look at estate-planning implications of divorce, including what happens with stepchildren and adopted children. We also look at estate-planning considerations for unmarried couples (both same-sex and opposite-sex), as well as guardianship concerns for your children and even yourself, if you’re unable to care for yourself. We also look at two documents you absolutely need to have in addition to your will: a durable power of attorney and a living will.

(If you wonder why it’s so difficult to find information about factoring your beloved pets into your estate planning, we agree and in Chapter 19 we present valuable information about providing for your pets that you need to know.)

Part VII: The Part of Tens

The Part of Tens chapters present you with concise lists, each of which contains ten elements about a key estate-planning topic. Chapter 20 presents ten questions you need to ask yourself before you start your estate planning (or, if you’ve already begun before reading this book, ten questions to ask yourself before doing anything else!). Chapter 21 lists ten common mistakes people make with their wills that you don’t want to make (hint, hint), and Chapter 22 lists ten Internet sites that contain loads of valuable estate-planning material you can use for reference.

Icons Used in This Book

As with all Dummies books, the text is annotated with icons to call your attention to various points we make (or try to make!) about estate planning.

When you see the Tip icon, the accompanying material is some action you should consider taking.

The Warning icon is exactly that: a warning of some dire consequence that may occur should you make the wrong move with your estate planning.

When you see the Technical Stuff icon, the accompanying material falls into that category of “thanks, but that’s more than I really needed to know.” You can certainly get the gist of any chapter’s contents by skimming over all the Technical Stuff material, but if you want to get “under the hood” for that chapter’s topic, a few moments spent with the Technical Stuff material can help you thoroughly understand that topic — just like the estate-planning professionals!

The Remember icon highlights the key point or two that can help you be a better estate planner.

Part I

Estate Planning Fundamentals

In this part . . .

This part explains the basics of estate planning: how everyone has an estate, and why estate planning is so important. We describe what you want to accomplish as part of your estate planning, and where you can turn for assistance. We also describe how you can get a handle on your estate’s value, which is something you absolutely need to know for estate tax planning, insurance planning, and nearly every other aspect of your estate planning.

Chapter 1

Congratulations: You Have an Estate!

In This Chapter

Understanding what your estate is

Knowing why you need to plan your estate

Realizing that your estate-planning goals are different from others’

Comprehending estate-planning lingo

Understanding the critical path method to planning your estate

Getting help with your estate planning

The protection and control that you need.

No, the above phrase isn’t the marketing slogan for a new deodorant, instead it expresses the two most important reasons for you to spend time and effort on your estate planning. The two reasons are these:

After you die, the government will try to take as much of your estate as possible, so you want to protect your estate from the government to the greatest extent that you can.