Estate Planning

Estate planning is a very sensitive topic, and many people leave it incomplete or avoid it altogether. However, inadequate estate planning can not only result in unnecessary estate tax obligations, but it can leave survivors and heirs confused and upset about unclear intentions and unrealized promises.

Ivy League Financial Advisors makes sure that estate planning is a part of every comprehensive financial plan—and that it reflects the unique concerns of each client and family. Through extensive discussions that might take place over several years, we help our clients define their inheritance plans and their end-of-life preferences. Then we work with estate planning attorneys (including attorneys who have already been advising our clients) to make sure that legal documents identify those choices clearly and accurately.

Estate planning for our clients in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia includes reviews of these key issues:

• Will. Who will receive what? How much will they receive? At its core, a will answers those questions.
• Advanced medical directive. Also known as a living will, this document tells doctors and loved ones which types of medical care you wish to receive, and which you don’t.
• Durable Power of Attorney. A statement of who will be making medical, financial, and living decisions for you in case you are incapacitated.
• Tax analysis. We suggest strategies to reduce the impact of federal estate tax law, as well as the different estate taxes for Maryland, D.C., or Virginia residents.
• A trust. For some families, a trust is an effective way to distribute assets to future generations and to lower estate taxes.
• How to make major charitable gifts, if gifting is part of a client’s desired legacy.
• Regular review of all documents to make sure they are accurate and up-to-date.

Estate Planning Is Not Just For Seniors

One issue that Ivy League Financial Advisors has learned by working with a wide variety of clients is that estate planning is not just for seniors. Everyone needs at least some documentation that will ease the transition for survivors during a difficult time.

For younger clients, an Ivy League Financial Advisors estate plan might be a fairly simple set of documents: a simple will, a living will, and a Durable Power of Attorney. We will also check to make sure that life insurance policies are up-to-date and correctly titled.

For older clients, wills might be more complicated, and trusts or other asset transfer strategies might be developed to reduce estate taxes on inheritance. We will also carefully look at all documents related to transfers of assets after death, in order to avoid probate or other situations in which the disposition of an estate can be delayed.

Contact us today to get your estate planning on track.

(Disclaimer. Ivy League Financial Advisors does not provide legal advice and cannot draft legal documents. We work with experienced estate planning attorneys who develop the legal documents that express a client’s estate planning intentions. We are pleased to work with a client’s current estate planning attorney, CPA^®, and other advisers.)