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• Minimizing the taxes your estate will have to pay . Estate planning involves much more than the inheritance and estate (death) taxes, but make no mistake, death taxes are certainly a consideration. Do you really want to pay more than you have to? You can take several steps—such as giving gifts while you’re still alive—to reduce the value of your estate and therefore reduce the amount of death taxes that will need to be paid.
• Protecting your business . While national, state, and local politicians like to claim they are all about the little guy—the small business owner or the family farmer—the fact remains that if you own a small- or medium-scale business, such as a retail store or a farm, that business can be turned upside down if you die without a solid estate plan in place.
While it might make good drama to have a hospital bed scene where the aged family patriarch or matriarch dictates what will happen to the vast family fortune, the place to begin your estate planning isn't on your deathbed! That last-minute approach usually opens up the prob- ability of one or more disgruntled family members trying to overturn your dying words. More than likely, due to the result of your lack of estate planning, your estate will dwindle away through legal fees and
taxes in excess of what should have been paid.
10 Estate Planning Essentials
Let’s face it. Estate planning isn’t something most people look forward to. However, it is necessary to make sure that everything you have worked so hard to obtain ends up in the right places after you die. While there are many details regarding trusts, estate taxes, and probate, there are 10 estate planning essentials from All Business (www.allbusiness.com) that you should keep in mind:
1 . Have a will: You should have a will drawn up that explains where assets and property will go once you die.
Estate Planning 3