Tag Archives: life insurance

Asset Protection, Estate Planning

Don’t Overlook the Importance of Life Insurance

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When it comes to creating an estate plan, you want to be as comprehensive as possible. Many people may not consider life insurance as part of their estate plan, but it is an important component in protecting your loved ones. In fact, if you have young children or a loved one with a disability, obtaining life insurance can be an effective way to ensure that they are provided for after you die. It allows your loved ones to obtain immediate cash at a critical time.

Determining the amount of life insurance you need may not be simple. You must consider both your long-term and short-term goals, as well as the needs of your family members who have been dependent on your income.

When you have minor children, you must consider how long it will take before they will be financially independent. If you have older children that are employed, they may require less monetary support than the younger children.

As general guidance, you must calculate the long-term needs of your dependents. This includes figuring how much of your income is provided to them every year, subtract the value of the assets you will pass down to them as well as any monetary support they will receive from other family members. This gives you an estimate on what each dependent will need.

In considering the short-term needs of your dependents, consider whether they will require quick access to money or assets. If most of your property is not easy to access or able to be immediately liquidated, then proceeds from life insurance can provide money for your loved ones to live on while they convert assets to cash.

It is our goal to provide you with the most comprehensive estate plan and asset protection plan as possible. Let us review your individual circumstances and help you create the best strategy for you and your family.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

A Short Estate Planning Checklist

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Estate planning can seem overwhelming to many people and they don’t know where to begin. While there are many decisions to be made and numerous factors that must be considered, below is a simple checklist of four items that you should look into immediately:

  • Create an estate plan. Although this can include several tasks, it is important to take the first step. Contact us and let us walk you through the process of creating a comprehensive estate plan. Even if you cannot afford to accomplish everything you want right now, your estate plan can be established in steps. We can begin with what fits within your finances, then upgrade later. If you have an existing estate plan, let us review it and update it if necessary. Many changes occur over time, with family, your financial status, and of course your age.
  • Save on taxes. You can save a significant amount of money by taking advantage of the federal gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. To learn more about how to do this, please contact us.
  • Gifting. You are allowed to give tax-free gifts each year in an amount up to $14,000 in cash or other assets to as many individuals as you want. This strategy allows you to decrease the size of your estate (which can save on estate taxes) over time, while also benefitting your beneficiaries. You should discuss this with an estate planning attorney before embarking on gifting. Giving away assets has the obvious implication that you can’t get it back, but also, there are more tax-efficient ways of gifting than simply writing a check.
  • Life insurance. You should review your life insurance policies (or look into buying one) to confirm that it meets your family’s needs and that the beneficiaries named are correct.
  • Retirement Plans. You should review the beneficiary designations on your retirement plans. Naming the right primary beneficiary and secondary beneficiary is critical to your family.

Don’t be intimidated by the estate planning process. We can help simply it for you while also ensuring that you and your family are protected.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.

Estate Planning

5 Tips for Getting Your Estate in Order

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If you want to make things easier on your surviving family members, it is important to organize your estate. The time you spend taking care of things now will help your loved ones deal with the difficulty of losing you. It will also ensure that your wishes will be carried out. Below are a few tips on ways you can organize your estate:

  1. Create an estate plan. Having a will, trust, and other estate planning documents allows you to ensure that your loved ones are protected and your estate doesn’t go to pay taxes and is not subject to unnecessary expense. Your estate plan should include a living will that sets forth your medical wishes if you are unable to make those decisions for yourself. It should also include a power of attorney that allows a trusted individual to make personal, legal or financial decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.
  2. Designate beneficiaries. If you have bank accounts or other types of accounts that allow you to name a “pay on death” beneficiary, it is imperative that you designate beneficiaries for each account.
  3. Draft a letter of instructions. It is extremely helpful for your loved ones to have instructions regarding your funeral wishes, people you want notified of your death, and where your important financial records can be located. It is important to list any passwords or other information necessary to access your financial records. You may want to consider preplanning your funeral so the process is less stressful for your family.
  4. Life insurance. It is important to obtain or update your life insurance, which provides your loved ones with an immediate source of funds. Be very careful about the beneficiary designations so that the life insurance is included in your estate plan.
  5. Review pensions, 401(k)s or IRAs. You want to make sure you have taken care of beneficiary arrangements so your survivors receive the benefits they are entitled to. These beneficiary designations must be part of your estate plan and your estate planning attorney should guide you in these decisions.

There are many other items that must be taken care of, but the above tips will give you a starting place. To learn more about estate planning or asset protection tools, contact us to schedule your appointment.

The Astill Law Office has provided high quality legal services for over 30 years. We specialize in wills, trusts, estate planning, and asset protection. If you have any questions about creating a Trust, Will, or estate planning in general, contact The Astill Law Office at 801-438-8698.