Protect yourself and your family with an estate plan

You’re working hard to build up some financial security with investments, your home and personal property. Therefore, it makes sense to work just as hard to protect yourself in the event something should happen to you. So even though the context is tough and the language difficult, it is important to realize that at its core, estate planning is about safeguarding what you’ve worked so hard to achieve—and ensuring that your life’s work winds up in the right hands.

Does estate planning apply to you?

Many of you may be thinking that estate planning doesn’t apply to you. And that may be largely true, especially if you’re young and healthy and have no children or assets. But as soon as you have a child, or you care about who will inherit your assets, you need an estate plan.

Our hope is that this section will encourage you to get started. While Strategy One Wealth Management is not an estate attorney, we will guide you through every step of the process to protect your assets. We will evaluate your personal situation, make recommendations and help you understand your options and their implications. Then, we will prepare you to execute any legal documents through an estate attorney of your choice.

Benefits of an estate plan

An estate plan helps ensure that your money and other assets go to the people you choose. Without a plan, state laws will determine your beneficiaries. On top of that, an estate plan can:

• Specify who will care for your minor children if you become unable to
• Defuse potential conflicts over the distribution of your assets
• Minimize estate taxes and other transfer taxes
• Avoid the costs, publicity and delays of probate, the court-supervised process used to value your estate, settle any debts, pay taxes and transfer assets to your heirs
• Help ensure that you and your affairs are taken care of in the manner you wish if you should become incapacitated

Basics of an Estate Plan

Are You Prepared?
Browse the below items in the estate planning process and see what may be missing in your life. Strategy One Wealth Management will help you implement a plan for your specific needs.

• Advance health care directive (aka living will)
• Beneficiary designations
• Estate tax
• Executor (or personal representative)
• Gift Tax
• Marital Property
• Pay-on-Death and Transfer-on-Death accounts
• Powers of attorney
• Probate
• Property Titling
• Trusts
• Unlimited charitable deduction
• Wills