Building up savings and a retirement plan takes decades. You do it to ensure that you and your spouse have a comfortable and secure lifestyle during your years of retirement. You may own your home outright and be confident that it’s increasing in value. Equally important, however, is ensuring that your wishes are carried out once you and your spouse are gone. If your plan is to leave an estate to your family or a charitable institution, now is the time to ensure that your wishes are carried out to the letter.
While you may be relatively young and healthy at the moment, lifespans are unpredictable, and unforeseen events do take many people by surprise. In fact, regardless of your age, it’s never too early to develop a well-thought-out estate plan that reflects your wishes and protects your assets.
The Distribution of Your Assets After Death
If you’re careful with money, you will likely find that assets will remain after you’ve passed away. For this reason, it’s important to build an estate plan that will distribute your remaining assets according to your wishes, whether it’s to family, friends, or a charity. Without a comprehensive estate plan, the courts will determine who gets your assets, and the process will be difficult and expensive. Your ultimate goal should be to build an estate plan that minimizes taxes and facilitates the distribution of your assets without fuss or legal entanglements.
Asset Planning for Business Owners
Beyond personal property, estate planning is particularly critical if you’re a business owner. It’s particularly critical if you are a business owner or a professional in an industry that experiences a lot of litigation (a healthcare provider, for example.) Investing time now to develop an estate plan is critical and the payoffs can be immense.
The Importance of Integrated Estate Planning
You may have a lawyer. You may have a financial advisor. You may have a tax professional. Do these entities work together to ensure that your estate is planned in a comprehensive way? In an ideal scenario, estate planners, accountants, and estate planning attorneys work together to produce an estate plan that meets your exact requirements. Estate planning, like tax planning, is part of the bigger picture that protects your interests during your retirement years and makes the cost-effective transfer of assets to heirs and charities when you are no longer here.
Consult an Estate Planning Professional
With the right estate planner, the work is done by a team that considers all aspects of the implementation, allowing you to be certain that your plan is followed through to successful completion and that there are no unpleasant surprises. Prime Wealth Advisors offers a complimentary retirement check-up so you can review the current health of your retirement plan.
Arizona-based Prime Wealth Advisors is a full-service tax, retirement planning, estate, and wealth management firm that can craft a robust wealth protection plan that will cover you, your business, and your heirs. Call 623.77.PRIME or visit our website for more information.
