Estate Planning Guidance

A well-crafted estate plan is an essential part of outlining the goals and objectives you have regarding the future disposition of your assets, your healthcare desires, and your gifting & charitable inclinations. You can also outline your wishes for things like your burial, what to do if you become disabled, and addressing the needs of your loved ones.

The number one reason to do estate planning is so your loved ones In practical terms, if you don’t have an estate plan, the state you reside in has one for you. The issue is that the plan outlined by your local government may have little to nothing to do with your goals and wishes. Furthermore, the process involved in settling your affairs and dealing with certain inevitable life decisions can often become:

• Expensive
• Time-consuming
• Cumbersome
• Open to public view

Importantly, an estate plan also needs to adapt to changes in your life & the legal landscape and coordinate well with all aspects of your financial picture.

The most common issues we identify for our clients are estate plans that are:

• Neglected (never created and so left to the process as defined by your local government)
• Out of date (no longer sufficient given the dynamics of you and your loved ones OR due to tax and estate law changes)
• Inefficient (overlooking important opportunities regarding tax, legal, and time savings and/or asset protection advantages)
• Uncoordinated (not properly aligned with all aspects of your finances: e.g., IRA/401k & Life Insurance beneficiary designations, account ownership titling, etc.)

Let Shared Vision Wealth Group help guide you with:

• Education on what estate planning means to you given your specific circumstances
• Aligning the goals and objectives you desire for your estate plan with your:
  • Beneficiary designations
  • Titling of accounts
  • Tax considerations
  • Gifting and charitable strategies
  • Cashflow needs or requirements (e.g., RMDs)
  • Investment strategies
  • Financial plans
• Navigating life changes (e.g., marriage, divorce, death, birth, etc.), with our help on:
  • Combining or splitting assets
  • Retitling ownership of accounts
  • Updating beneficiary designations
  • Satisfying required mandatory distributions
• Coordinating with and/ or referring you to, legal advisor(s) qualified to help you draft formal estate plan documents (e.g., Trusts, Wills, DPOAs, AHCDs, etc.)

At Shared Vision Wealth Group, we help you get answers to important questions like:

• Should you create a formal estate plan and why?
• If you have an Estate Plan, is it up to date with your life?
• Do your account registrations and beneficiary designations coordinate well with your estate plans?
• Is what you expect to happen with your estate likely to happen?
• Are there gaps, mismatches, or foreseeable conflicts with your objectives and your current estate plan (or lack of one)?
• Are there opportunities for efficiency improvement? (i.e., reduce tax & admin costs, save time, reduce hassle and conflict for family, etc.)