Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
Revocable Living Trust: A legal arrangement that helps you bypass probate while managing your assets during your lifetime and after you pass away.
Property Power of Attorney: A document that authorizes someone you trust to handle your financial affairs and property matters on your behalf.
Health Care Power of Attorney: A legal form that lets you designate someone to make medical decisions for you if you’re unable to make them yourself.
Annual Gift Tax Exclusion: A strategy that lets you give money or property to others each year without triggering gift or estate taxes and without reducing your lifetime tax exemption.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust: A special trust that holds life insurance policies, keeping the death benefit proceeds out of your taxable estate.
Family Limited Partnership: A business structure that offers several benefits:
- Shields partnership assets from individual partners’ creditors
- Protects limited partners from liability
- Allows parents to transfer wealth to children while keeping management authority
- Potentially lowers the taxable value of transferred assets
Children’s or Grandchildren’s Irrevocable Education Trust: A trust that parents or grandparents establish to fund educational expenses for younger family members.
Charitable Remainder Interest Trust: An arrangement where you transfer assets to a charity but continue receiving income from those assets during your lifetime. This provides tax deductions for charitable giving and helps you avoid capital gains taxes on appreciated property.
Fractional Interest Gift: A method of transferring partial ownership in real estate to recipients, which can qualify for valuation discounts that reduce gift and estate taxes.
Private Foundation: A charitable organization typically created by wealthy families to support philanthropic causes while maintaining some influence over how the foundation’s resources are used, offering tax benefits for charitable contributions.
