Estate Planning

If you are concerned about your family and their future then it becomes essential for you to begin with estate planning. Estate planning is a complex process that involves will preparation, trust creating, selecting guardians, leaving legacy for your loved ones and performing many other tasks before your earthly journey ends.

Thoughtfully planned estates will help you preserving hard earned assets for retirement years, provide more for your loved ones after you are gone and safeguard assets from heavy taxation.

The estate planning process begins with documenting assets and liabilities, deciding what your estate goals are, how you want it to be distributed.

Estate Planning Process

1. Before initiating an estate plan, you must know what your assets and liabilities are. Your assets might include:


• Real Estate
• Investments such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds
• Insurance policies
• Personal property such as cars, jewellery


2. Decide what your estate plan should achieve:



Each situation is unique. How you structure your estate plan may depend entirely on what you want to accomplish. For example, an older couple in retirement without any dependent children objectives would be entirely different from those who have dependents or the heirs. Here we have listed some of the most common objectives, which you wish to consider:



• Maximizing value of assets
• Distributing assets as per your wishes
• Ensure your estate has sufficient liquid assets to pay taxes and other liabilities after your death
• Ensuring appointment of appropriate Trustees/executors for the beneficiaries of your estate


3. Finalize how you want your estate to be distributed



One of the most crucial decisions that you make while planning your estate lies in finalizing what to leave and to find the most deserving one. However, it is equally important to decide in what manner you want your assets to be distributed. The four basic distribution methods are:



• Gifting assets before death: It means passing them on to your beneficiaries while you are alive.
• Living Trust: Preparing a legal document in which you place property ''in trust'' so that benefits can be obtained by one or more beneficiaries.
• Distributing assets through your estate: It simply states distributing your estate as outlined in your will.


4. Preparation of Will



Dying intestate or dying without a will can leave your objectives in lurch. The absence of a Will can delay distribution of your estate or even leave your beneficiaries in financial difficulty. Presently, if you do not have a Will, you should prepare one and divide estate among the living heirs or to those whom you think are the most deserving one.