Is the estate you spent a lifetime accumulating and/or conserving going to be reduced significantly by the time your heirs receive it?
Only action now on your part will help to ensure your heirs receive the estate you intend. Ill-advised or misguided action, or complete inaction, may allow taxes and probate to take a large portion of your estate and allow someone else to determine how your estate is distributed. Your estate is the wealth you have accumulated during your lifetime. This could include real estate, livestock, machinery, stocks, bonds, cash, retirement plans and anything else you own. To conserve your estate, you must achieve two goals:
By taking the necessary steps in estate conservation, you can avoid conflicts among your heirs, reduce delays and expenses by dealing with these issues now, and you can make the decisions about what you want to do with your estate.
There are several decisions to make when deciding how to conserve your estate.
There are a couple of exceptions to estate taxes.
What additional information do you need?
The decision of how to distribute your estate is very important. But generally, there are three basic ways this distribution will take place.
This information is a brief outline of the basic concepts of estate planning. To deal with these issues in detail, it takes a person trained in estate planning to work through the difficult issues. Make sure it is someone who is willing to work with you and your family to reach the appropriate plan.
Dealing with estate issues can often be an emotional roller coaster for families one group wanting to maintain control and not willing or able to let go of the operation, and at the same time the next generation wanting to do things their way. Many families have broken up over these very issues, so it is imperative that lines of communication be established so that the process will allow for the appropriate distribution of the estate, and the estate transfer process does not come to a halt because no one is willing to deal with the difficult issues.