Estate Planning
Everyone can benefit from doing basic estate planning, regardless of age or net worth. Individuals with dependents are at especially high risk of leaving behind disadvantages loved ones if basic estate planning hasn’t been given proper priority. Individuals with handsome nest eggs may also have much to gain from doing estate planning. The benefits of working with Apropos to do estate planning include:
- Self-determination of how end-of-life care will be managed and delivered
- Self-determination of how your final affairs (e.g. business dealings, debt payment, probate, estate administration) will be settled
- Self-determination of how your surviving dependents will be provided for
- Self-determination of how your possessions will be dispersed and to whom
- Reduction or elimination of estate and inheritance taxes where possible
- Self-determination of how estate taxes due on your estate will be paid
- Reduction of anxiety and unpleasant surprises experienced by surviving family members and friends
We will query you in detail about your assets, your family and your wishes and goals for pre and post-mortem asset transfers. In other words, the estate planning advice we deliver to you will be 100% tailored to your unique circumstances.
The deliverables for an estate planning engagement include:
- A Net Worth Statement showing your worth after your liabilities have been subtracted from your assets
- A report specifying recommendations for drawing up legal documents
- Where appropriate, forms that can be used to cost effectively create a health care proxy and living will
- Where desired, an objective explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of the many estate planning tools such as trusts, life insurance, lifetime gifting, post-mortem bequests and the like
- Where desired, an objective review of an attorney-prepared estate plan to identify possible issues such as tax inefficiencies, sub-optimal asset transfers, sub-optimal timing of estate planning activities, inadequate or wrongly prioritized adherence to your stated goals, and so on; this assessment may include an explanation of feasible, potentially superior alternatives to one or more details of the proposed plan
These deliverables will be thoroughly explained to you in a presentation meeting.
The amount of time we require to fulfill the stated goals of an estate planning engagement, and therefore the cost of this service to you, will vary depending on the complexity of your estate planning goals and the complexity of your assets. You will be provided with a guaranteed fee estimate at the end of our complimentary Get Acquainted meeting.