This quick read makes understanding the rules of estate planning easy!

Estate Planning Basics  provides concise, straightforward and easy-to-read explanations of the major components of estate planning, so that you don't have to spend hours wading through endless options (most of which apply to the wealthy).

Learn about:

choosing beneficiaries

estate planning by parents with minor children

wills

living trusts

other probate-avoidance methods, including using a retirement plan like an IRA or 401(k) as an estate planning device

estate taxes and tax-reduction methods

trusts for people in second marriages, or for those leaving property to a disabled person

planning for the handling of medical and financial decisions if one becomes incompetent

Attorney Denis Clifford gives you the reliable, plain-English answers you need, whether you're doling out the family heirlooms or steering clear of estate taxes. The 4th edition is updated with the the latest estate planning laws and information of your state.

Who needs to bother with estate planning? Here's the short answer:
* anyone who owns property that matters to them, and
* anyone with a minor child (under 18).

Estate planning isn't only for the rich, nor are there minimum property requirements, such as owning a home. Anything you care about -- from art works to gold earrings to items with little or no market value such as the old family rocking chair or loved photographs -- is significant enough to warrant at least basic estate planning.

The key is to ask yourself whether you own any property that you want to go to a specific person or organization when you die. If the answer is yes, you need to create a plan to make sure your desires will be carried out.

Example: Tracy told me she had no reason to worry about estate planning; she was a carpenter. I asked her if she were sure she owned nothing she cared about. She answered "No, nothing -- well, I guess my tools." When I pressed her a bit, she estimated they were worth, in total, over $35,000. I told her that if she did no planning before she died, her tools would be divided, according to state law, between members of her family. She exclaimed that wasn't what she wanted at all. Everyone knew she wanted her tools to go to her partner, Alex. I explained that she could guarantee her goal by preparing a very simple will. Later, having prepared a will, she told me, "You know, that's been nagging at me for years." I answered that she was definitely not alone.

If you have a minor child, or children, you automatically have estate planning concerns. Who will raise your child if you can't? More precisely, if you and the child's other parent, if there is one involved, die before your child is a legal adult (over 18), who will be the adult responsible for caring for the child? Legally, there are two different adult roles involved. The first is raising and nurturing the child -- having legal custody, and making day-to-day personal decisions on the child's behalf. The second adult role is managing any property owned by, or left for the use of, the child. By law, minors cannot control any significant amount of property they own. Commonly, parents name one adult to serve in both capacities.

Example: Felicity and Joe have two young children, ages one and three. They own an inexpensive car, personal and household belongings, and two life insurance policies for $100,000, one on each spouse's life. If one parent dies, the other one will, of course, carry on. But like many parents, the couple worries about what will happen if they die together. They discuss who should raise their children and manage the insurance money if they both die. They are pleased and relieved to agree that their wisest choice is Joe's sister Susan, who loves their kids and is securely married with one child of her own. Felicity and Joe discuss the matter with Susan, who agrees to serve as guardian if the need arises.

Joe and Felicity also are aware that present stability is no guarantee of lifetime security. If Susan's life drastically changes for the worse, Joe and Felicity will then make new plans for the care of their children.

 

This quick read makes understanding the rules of estate planning easy!

Your Estate Planning Legal Companion

1. A First Look at Estate Planning
Evaluating Your Personal Situation
Choosing Your Beneficiaries
Providing for Young Children
Planning for Incapacity
Transferring Your Property After You Die
Estate Taxes
Making Changes
More Estate Planning Resources From Nolo

2. Your Beneficiaries
Direct Beneficiaries
Alternate Beneficiaries
Beneficiary Complexities
Disinheritance
Talking It Over

3. Children
Naming Someone to Care for Young Children
Naming Someone to Manage Your Child's Property
Choosing How Your Children's Property Should Be Managed
Naming Children as Beneficiaries of Life Insurance
Tax-Saving Educational Investment Plans
Leaving Property to Adult Children
Leaving Property to Other People's Children

4. Planning for Incapacity: Medical Care and Finances
Medical Decisions
Financial Decisions

5. Wills
Will Requirements
Types of Wills
Probate
Using a Will in Your Estate Planning
Preparing Your Will
Challenges to Your Will

6. Living Trusts
How a Living Trust Works
Do You Need a Living Trust?
Living Trusts and Taxes
Living Trusts and Young Children
Shared Living Trusts for Couples
Making Key Decisions About Your Living Trust
Preparing Your Living Trust Documents

7. Other Probate-Avoidance Methods
Pay-on-Death Bank Accounts
Transfer-on-Death Accounts for Securities
Transfer-on-Death Car Registration
Transfer-on-Death Deeds for Real Estate
Joint Tenancy
Tenancy by the Entirety
Community Property With Right of Survivorship
Simplified Probate Proceedings
Life Insurance
Gifts

8. Retirement Plans as Estate Planning Devices
Individual Retirement Programs
Pensions
Choosing Beneficiaries for Individual Retirement Programs
Retirement Plans and Taxes

9. Estate Tax
Federal Estate Tax Exemptions
State Estate and Inheritance Tax
Gift Tax
The Federal Income-Tax Basis of Inherited Property

10. Reducing Federal Estate Taxes
Making Gifts During Life
The AB Trust
Other Tax-Saving Trusts
Disclaiming Gifts

11. Property Control Trusts
Marital Property Control Trusts for Second or Subsequent Marriages
Special Needs Trusts for People With Disabilities
Education Trusts
Spendthrift Trusts
Flexible Trusts

12. Lawyers
Will You Need a Lawyer?
Using Lawyers
Doing Your Own Research

13. Finalizing Your Estate Plan
Storing Your Estate Planning Documents
Revising Your Estate Plan

Index

"One of the simplest and best overviews of the estate-planning process. It will help you understand most of the documents you need, and some basic planning (including disability planning, which too many authors overlook)."

 

"Will be appreciated by those with modest estates who want a quick overview."

 

"A search of more than a dozen books in my reference library uncovered a mention of the stepped up basis in all, but only Estate Planning Basics... makes it clear that the basis of inherited property is adjusted up or down."

 

Denis Clifford, a graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was an editor of The Law Review, is a lawyer who specializes in estate planning. He is the author of many Nolo titles including Quick and Legal Will Book, Nolo's Simple Will Book and Make Your Own Living Trust and co-author of Plan Your Estate and A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples. He has been interviewed by such major media as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Money Magazine.

 

Estate Planning Basics by Denis Clifford
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