When we leave this earth, we have two choices about where our wealth goes. They are: the government in the form of estate taxes, or to people and/or causes we care about.
Know that, if you are not doing estate planning, by not doing it, you are choosing to give your money to the government. Estate planning is about the legacy you leave, and thoughtful stewardship of your wealth, such that you leave the largest impact you are capable of leaving.
The remainder—very few of us die dead even, so to speak. We are either in debt, or we have something—an estate. The estate is the remainder. Estate planning is about insuring that as much as your remaining wealth as possible goes to the people, and/or causes, you care about. Blue Water Wealth’s approach to this issue flows from the information provided by your comprehensive financial plan. The first order of business is to quantify how much you need to enjoy your retirement exactly as you envision it with very little risk that you will run out of money over the course of your indicated life expectancy. Once we quantify your needs, we can begin to address how to attend to the remainder. The remainder is your estate.
We employ a variety of approaches to attend to your estate.
They include, but are not limited to:
- Wills
- Gifting
- College funding
- Donor-advised funds
- Charitable trusts
- Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT’s)
- Family limited partnerships
Once we frame an overall approach to your estate, we engage with you and your estate planning attorney to seek their counsel, and to have them create the documents necessary to install your estate plan. If needed, we will refer you to an attorney who specializes in estate planning.