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An Overview of Estate Planning

Anthony J. Caiazzo April 3, 2022

When clients come to our law office, they often have numerous questions about estate planning that we answer for them. Our Philadelphia estate planning attorney has provided an overview of estate planning for clients.

The Definition of an Estate

Your estate includes all of your assets when you die, such as cash, real estate, personal property, retirement plans, business interests, securities, IRAs and life insurance death benefits.

Who Benefits from Philadelphia Estate Planning Lawyer

Our clients have spent their lives working to prepare for the future and made careful financial plans for themselves. They have achieved many goals, including buying homes, planning for college, giving to charity, preparing for retirement and helping their children. With their busy schedules, they often put estate planning on the back burner. Almost anyone can benefit from estate planning, but the individuals who will benefit most include those with significant assets or with minor or incapable heirs. Other individuals want to set up periodic distributions to their heirs instead of turning over all their assets at once. Proper estate planning can ensure that the state does not decide how your assets are divided after your demise but empowers you to make those decisions. Our Philadelphia estate planning lawyer can review each of these points with you to ensure that your goals are met.

Components of a Solid Estate Plan

A solid estate plan will accomplish the following: protect the value of your assets, minimize taxes and related expenses, pass your assets on to your heirs according to your wishes, establish a plan to manage your assets for you if you are disabled and keep your financial matters private.

An Overview of Probate

Probate includes confirming the validity of a will, paying off creditors, distributing assets to heirs and retaining a mediator to settle disagreements about the will. Probate is important if a person dies with no will. However, a will goes through probate in estates of any size.

An Overview of a Trust

The trust is part of an estate plan that organizes how the assets are handled. A trustee is named as a manager of the assets within the trust.

Our Philadelphia estate planning attorney will work with you to ensure that your goals are met so that you can pass your assets to your heirs. If you are ready to set up an estate plan, call Anthony Caiazzo for help.