Estate Planning

Why?

We believe that healthcare professionals and business owners deserve unique planning that addresses the heightened challenges healthcare providers face throughout their lifetime. Our team will guide you through a thorough analysis to determine goals, objectives, and the levels of protection you’ll need.

Planning Services

Charitable Planning
Estate Tax
Disability Protection
Income Tax Reduction
Liquidity Event
Wealth Transfer

Charitable Planning

Charitable Planning – charitable planning includes annual donations or contributions to charities to advance the community or help assist others. Annual donations or contributions can result in reductions to income tax when properly planned. Charitable planning can also be included in end-of-life planning through creation of testamentary gifts or trusts, or during life through the creation of a charitable remainder trust. The donor of the charitable remainder trust may be able to take a tax deduction when assets are donated to the trust.

Wealth Transfer

Wealth Transfer – usually involves the transfer of wealth from an older generation to a younger generation, for example, grandparents to child or grandchildren. Such transfers often include planned gifting, including annual gifting, to younger generations or establishing trusts with the younger generations as beneficiaries or remainder beneficiaries. Where there is a family business, it often involves succession planning of the business to the next generation through transfer of membership or ownership interests done over time, and while the younger generation is learning the business and how to effectively run the business. Transferring wealth during lifetime can help reduce the size of a taxable estate, help the younger generation, and can afford valuation discounts to certain assets such as memberships in family limited partnerships or limited liability companies.

Liquidity

Liquidity is a term used to describe the ease assets can be converted to cash. A liquid asset is one that can be easily and quickly converted to cash with a minimum of loss through conversion. Liquid assets include cash (of course), stocks, bonds, options, commodities, and savings bonds. It is important to have a portfolio of investments that include liquid assets in case of unexpected and significant expenditures that cannot be covered with ordinary savings.

Income Tax Reduction

Planning the receipt of income and contribution to certain investment vehicles, such as an individual retirement accounts, that are deductible from gross income. Income tax reduction planning also encompasses contribution to certain plans that while the contribution is not deductible in the current year, earnings in the plan grow tax-free and money withdrawn in compliance with the plan is tax-free. Examples include Roth IRA and 529 plans for college. Income tax reduction also looks for other deductions and credits for current year taxes that may not be ordinary or commonly thought of.

Estate Tax Planning

Estate tax planning – Because the exemption from taxation for an individual’s estate is now $5.49 million dollars (a married couple has a combined exemption of $11.8 million for the surviving spouse if the first spouse’s exemption has not been used), many individuals will not have a taxable estate; however, those individuals with high net worth, pre-planning to move certain assets out of your estate and into trusts or other vehicles before you pass can mitigate the tax owed on your estate. Additionally, married persons can take advantage of the marital deduction, and can arrange there estate assets in a way that minimizes taxes to both spouses’ estates.

Disability Protection

Disability protection – planning in case you become disabled or require long term care. Often when a person becomes disabled or needs long term care, he or she will need to qualify for social security disability income or supplemental security income or Medicaid. These programs generally have maximum thresholds of assets that may be owned or income that may be earned by the individual needing to qualify for one of these programs. It is important to keep in mind that qualifying for any of these programs is usually not an easy task. Therefore, an individual should consider obtaining long term care insurance or disability insurance as part of their portfolio and overall life-plan. Additionally, for individuals with no or little assets other than social security, pension benefits, qualified retirement plans or other forms of annuities, a qualified income trust could be established should the individual require long-term institutionalized care.
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