Legacy Planning

Are you able to secure your wealth for future generations?

At some point, your wealth will transfer to the next generation. Do you have a plan for how your assets will be distributed? Do you know who will receive your assets? Who will manage your estate or business? Who will manage your assets and your medical care in the event of disability or incapacitation?

There are several matters you may want to consider when thinking about legacy planning:

Strategies for providing adequate resources for family and friends in the event of your premature death.
A trust maintained for the benefit of other family members, with loans made under very favorable terms. The principal is maintained and managed to benefit each succeeding generation of heirs. If properly structured, it can escape future estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
A plan to manage day-to-day affairs or to make medical decisions when you are not mentally or physically able to make them.
A plan that takes into consideration providing for a surviving spouse while ensuring that the ultimate beneficiaries are children from a previous marriage.
Gifts that allow you to actively manage the process of transferring wealth to the next generation, as well as benefit from significant tax advantages.
Probate is a court-supervised process to finalize your estate after your death. There are basic estate planning documents you should have to simplify this process and reduce costs.
Most parents want to treat their children equally, but it may not be feasible or desirable to split an asset equally among all beneficiaries. There are several ways to organize your assets to ensure that your children will receive comparable inheritances.
When and how to retire from the business. If you own a business, you will have to develop a succession plan and decide whether to sell the business or give it away during life or at death.

Family means different things to different people. We’d like to know what it means to you.

In addition to intergenerational planning, we like to meet with all the members of your family to help ensure that everybody is clear about the financial goals and understands the strategies we will use to pursue those goals. Some families find it difficult to discuss money with their children, but we can help you overcome this reluctance and improve communication, knowledge, and understanding. It is important for us to talk to your children and beneficiaries about their roles and responsibilities—to work through budgeting issues and to review the locations of important documents.

Wealth management is defined as the ability to protect, preserve, accumulate, and transfer wealth in a cost-effective, tax-efficient manner. We’d like to add three words to that definition: for your family. Financial planning doesn’t have to cross generational boundaries. We just think that you deserve it.

Commonwealth Financial Network® and The Wealth Transition Collective’ do not provide legal or tax advice. You should consult a legal or tax professional regarding your individual situation.

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