Foundational Estate Planning

A successful estate plan implements one’s goals for the care of loved ones and the transfer of assets during life and after death.

The plan must accommodate many difficult personal decisions, including guardianship, testamentary gifts, wealth transfer taxes, health care, financial security, children or adults with special needs or disabilities, and provisions for the surviving spouse. The foundation of estate planning is the appropriate use of wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, lifetime gifting strategies, property status agreements, powers of attorney, and health care directives. A sound estate plan not only provides comfort that one’s “affairs are in order,” it is the basis for the ongoing process of lifetime planning.