Estate planning is the legal process and procedure where by an individual or family develops a legal plan to guarantee that the assets they have worked hard to accumulate during their lifetime are protected and distributed to those people they love or organizations they admire. Estate planning permits you to name guardians for your minor children and indicate your wishes for care if one day you are unable to speak for yourself because of illness or injury.
Estate planning is the best protection one can have for preventing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from receiving a significant portion of your assets. There are a number of legal tax strategies that will allow you to keep your assets out of the hands of the government. Malibu estate planning lawyers will advise you on how to gain the maximum benefits of all laws while simultaneously carrying out your estate planning wishes. Call our estate planning office at 310-415-0294 today for a free consultation.
One of the most common concerns of estate planning is how to properly manage the estate taxes. We will help you plan for inheritance taxes and all related matters. In building a solid estate plan there are many tools available:
Wills: An estate planning will is a legal document that details how your assets and property is going to be distributed when you die. By creating a will, you will guarantee that the people you want to be the beneficiaries of your estate are given the appropriate assets of the estate. When you do not have a will, the State of California will determine how your assets are distributed.
Trusts: Another estate planning tool for protecting your assets is a trust. There is the living trust revocable trust, irrevocable trust, special needs trust and a few other trust tools available for estate planning. In order to determine the best trust for you, a proper review of your estate is necessary.
Power of Attorney: A power of attorney is a legal designation whereby a family member or trusted friend is given the power that allows them to deal with your finances if you should become incapacitated and are unable to take care of them on your own. They would have the power to pay your medical bills, collect government Social Security benefits, as well as handle your retirement account.
Health Care Directives: The legal document is sometimes call a living will; it is a health care directive that tells how you want to be treated if at some point in time you are unable to communicate with your doctors or family. The health care directive is very important to have in place when an individual is in a vegetative state or long-term coma. This document will detail the hard decisions that need to be made about what to do in life saving situations, artificial nutrition and ventilators.
