Wiener and Wiener LLP

PRESERVING WEALTH

AND PASSING IT ON

AS YOU WISH

Before beginning to write a will, the first step is to have an estate plan. It isn't only people with significant wealth that need an estate plan - everyone does, otherwise you may wind up with a will which doesn't really accomplish want you wanted to happen.

Preparing an estate plan will allow for your assets to be arranged to fulfill your objectives with the minimum expenditure for taxes, and by creating the legal structures to ensure the distribution to your heirs in accordance with your desires. It is a personalized plan since what and when you want to do for your heirs may be different than your neighbor's.

WHAT GOES INTO AN ESTATE PLAN?

In devising an Estate Plan, the first step is a review of all your financial resources. These include hard assets, such as real estate, including your house, other tangible property, such as cars, boats, jewelry and art; equity investments, such as a business, partnerships or other ventures; marketable investments, such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Certificates of Deposits, or similar financial instruments; life insurance policies; 401(k), pension, profit sharing and retirement funds; and "liquid" assets - your checking, savings and money market accounts. It also includes other property such as vacation homes, time share interests, joint bank accounts, stock options, loans to family members or others and may even include an interest in a trust created by someone else.

The next step is the core of your estate plan. It involves your answering some difficult questions in order to establish your objectives. While this sounds easy, it requires very personal decisions about your heirs and making certain that the right questions are asked.

In the distribution of your assets you will have to decide about financial management of your assets upon your death, care for minor children, if any, whether to leave assets to heirs in a lump sum or to provide for periodic distribution over some period of time, the use of life insurance, possible current gifts to heirs and perhaps generation skipping transfers. If you own a closely held business it is necessary that the estate plan address the plans for continuation and preservation of the business or the sale or your interest in the business. Each of these decisions lead to other questions that must be answered to create an estate plan that accomplishes your goals.

Once your goals are clear, the plan must then be set up in a manner that preserves your wealth for your family by reducing potential future estate taxes. The current federal estate tax legislation has added more complexity requiring that your estate plan be flexible to meet the changes contained in the existing law and changes that are certain to follow sometime this decade.

These issues can be complex and confusing from a legal perspective as well as the personal decisions that you must make concerning your heirs. We can help you by making certain that the right questions are asked, that the legal issues are explained in simple terms that you understand and not in confusing legal and tax jargon, and that a distribution scheme is created which best meets your goals with minimum taxation. We will explain what the options are and work with you to develop an Estate Plan which best meets your desires for your situation.

WIENER AND WIENER LLP

ALLENTOWN PENNSYLVANIA
610 821 8600

WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA
561 689 6660