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When thinking about the holidays, most of us start to think about the long and tedious list of gifts we want to wrap for our loved ones to enjoy. This year, we want to encourage you to think about a different type of gift for the people you love and care about – an estate plan!
Now hear us out, we know it’s not the most exciting gift to unwrap, but an estate plan will last a lifetime, and will save you more time and money than that new razor your father asked for (even if he might really need that razor.) Of course, we love these gifts for a while, but what about something that is fully customizable and can last during your lifetime, and even long after?
You’re probably wondering how a seemingly boring binder of paper is going to be great Christmas gift, so, let’s discuss why an estate plan is the best choice for your family this year.
1. It Can Help Them Avoid Court Time and Fees
Give your family the gift of not having to deal with the time consuming and public process of probate that can end up piling on fees for your family to deal with.
When you create an Arizona estate plan with our attorneys at AVID Esq. Group, they help you design a customized Trust. A Trust is the best course of action to avoid going through probate. If you or someone you know has ever gone through probate before, you know it can be less than simple and you may be saying to yourself “I will do ANYTHING to avoid ever doing that!”
Not only does probate take months – or sometimes even years to complete, but it also costs money. The last thing you want to do is think about all the money you worked for and diligently planned to save, going in large portions to the government as probate fees, instead of to your loved ones like you had hoped.
When in probate, court fees, appraiser fees, and attorney fees are taken out before being distributed. That’s potentially thousands of dollars that could have been distributed to Trusts for your children or spent on burial arrangements.
You can save your loved one’s time and money, making sure they have an attorney to call when you pass away to help guide them on what to do next based on your wishes and avoiding the long and pricey probate process.
2. It Can Help Protect Your Assets, Which Will One Day Be Their Assets!
Protecting your assets from creditors and predators is important not only for you, but for your beneficiaries such as your spouse, children, relatives, or whoever you have chosen.
When you create a properly structured Trust, you are making sure that the money you saved for your loved ones, stays safe from being touched by creditors or unplanned individuals.
Give the best gift by giving your family security, let them know that the money and assets you have been saving, will always be safe and they will never have to worry or wonder what will happen to your assets after you pass or if you become incapacitated.
3. It Can Help Them Locate Your Assets Instead of Guessing
With an estate plan, you help create a very helpful tool to easily find all of your assets without having to guess and search. Did you know that if your loved ones don’t know about a certain asset and don’t claim it after your death, after a certain period of time it will be transferred to the State of Arizona as unclaimed property?!
The attorneys at AVID Esq. Group work with your CPA’s, financial advisors, brokers, Insurance agents, and any other professional that are important to your estate. This is a huge benefit to your family when it comes time to locate and distribute your assets to your beneficiaries.
Think about how helpful it will be for your loved ones to know where to find
- Bank & Investment Accounts
- Vehicles
- Titles
- Credit Cards & Loans
Without a helpful list of all of your assets, you leave your loved ones to anxiously search for everything you owned, often times losing some of your assets and never being able to locate everything until many years down the road – and sometimes not at all.
4. It Can Help Them Maximize Tax Savings
There’s that dreaded word – taxes! Everybody we meet with wants the same thing – minimize the taxes my family will have to pay when I die. There are several types of taxes we are mostly concerned with: Gift, Estate and Capital Gains. When you come in for your consultation we will review your assets to get an idea of the size of your estate. This will let us know if we have to be concerned with estate taxes.
Fortunately, here in AZ we don’t have a state estate tax. But we do need to be mindful of federal estate taxes.
For most families, this is not too big of a concern as the average American can currently pass along roughly $12M to their heirs without paying estate taxes – but that figure will drop soon in 2025 – we just don’t know what it will drop down to.
Capital gains is another big issue we watch for. If you are not careful it is easy to lose you “step up” in tax basis for certain large assets if you gift them away while you are alive. We commonly see this when parents list their kids on the title of the house. BIG MISTAKE! Not only does it open your house up to the kids creditors, but when you pass away you will leave a big tax bill to your children because they will instead get a “carry over” basis. Essentially, they will pay capital gains based on the dollar amount you purchased the property for. If we structure things correctly, however, the basis will instead “step up” to what the FMV of the asset is when you pass away, eliminating or reducing the capital gains impact on your family.
Failure to plan can cost your family significantly in taxes. Let us help reduce that burden.
5. And Finally – And It’s A Big One – Peace of Mind
We saved the best for last. Peace of mind is why we do what we do. We know first-hand what happens when families lack the planning of having an estate plan. It’s important to plan for the future if you were to become incapacitated without needing the court to appoint someone for you. Here is a list documents we provide that are important to plan:
- Medical Power of Attorney: to help make medical decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated, without the court appointing someone for you.
- Durable Power of Attorney: to help make financial decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated, without the court appointing someone for you.
- Living Will: Takes the stress off your loved ones to decide when to “pull the plug”. A Living Will lists your wishes for doctors and your medical power of attorney to follow.
When your family has questions, they have an attorney to speak to, who knows your unique estate plan and who can help guide them to what you wishes were.
You are giving the gift of a professional who can help, especially if you have minor children who are depending on you.
The Ultimate Gift
At AVID, we want to provide your family peace of mind and all the other great benefits of having an estate plan.
If you are interested in speaking with a Chandler attorney to discuss your options, we are offering a complimentary consultation with 120 minutes of attorney time AND a $300 credit towards your estate plan. Our attorneys provide legal support for the entire east valley, helping Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, and Queen Creek residents plan their estate plans.
Give us a call today at 480-467-5636 or by email at support@avidesq.com This offer will be valid until December 30, 2022.
Happy Holidays!
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Thursday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
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