Our clients frequently expend great energy building their businesses, careers and personal net worth. We advise that they spend a small fraction of that energy to insure that their assets are administered and safeguarded and business, personal and family wishes are honored and properly realized. Trusts and estate planning requires a small effort, but can secure the true legacy of all your business endeavors.

Kupfer & Associates assists our clients with planning for:

• Asset disposition in the manner you determine.
• Trusts to control planned and periodic distribution.
• Guardianship of minor children.
• Estate tax savings.
• Successorship planning for transferring business ownership to heirs.
• Prenuptial agreements
• Same-sex couple wills, estate plans, power of attorney, and visitation rights.

One of the biggest benefits of estate planning is minimization of taxes. Without proper planning, decades of earnings can be wiped out in an instant.

Take for example a married couple with children and a total estate value in 2006 of $4 million. Upon the death of one spouse, the law permits an unlimited transfer of assets to the surviving spouse, and up to $2 million to heirs without taxation. A simple will, or no will at all, might result in the entire $4 million estate passing to the spouse. One might not think this is an issue at all due to the unlimited marital exemption until one considers what happens when the second spouse dies.

At the time of the second spouse passing, again only $2 million can be passed onto heirs tax-free, while the other $2 million could be exposed to a 46% estate tax. Nearly $1 million would be lost to taxes.

This can be prevented, prior to the first spouse passing, by distributing the first $2 million to or for the benefit of heirs tax-free using various planning vehicles including trusts. This is a dramatic simplification to illustrate a point, and should not be used as the basis for planning, but it serves to highlight the benefit that simple planning can have for your estate.

Many people believe their net worth does not warrant estate planning, but they often do not take into account recent increases in real estate values, nor the impact that life insurance distributions can have on the estate. Most people have heard from their insurance agents that life insurance is handled “outside the estate”. Life insurance, while outside the estate for probate purposes (since it is distributed directly to the named beneficiary), is still included in the estate for tax purposes. This may dramatically affect the size and valuation of the estate, and cause amounts that are distributed to exceed tax exemption levels, thus triggering estate taxes as mentioned above.

In addition, there are many non-monetary reasons for estate planning such as guardianship of minor and disabled children, trusts to prevent outright bequests to problem or irresponsible children and other relatives, bequests of family heirlooms or other specific items to specific people, living wills and health care powers of attorney.

These are just a few of the many issues and considerations that a qualified estate planning attorney can explain so that you can make informed decisions while options still exist. Due to changing laws, life circumstances and inflationary affects, we recommend that a simple estate planning review be conducted no less frequently than every 5 years or whenever major life event occurs such as material income or asset changes, marriage, divorce, birth of a child, disability, job change, retirement, or death of an heir.

We invite you to contact our attorneys to learn more about how Kupfer & Associates can support you in planning your estate and using trust arrangements to your advantage.