Comprehensive estate planning during your retirement requires you to take account of your financial needs, ensure that they are met, and provide additional safeguards. Some ways to develop this type of plan are discussed below.
Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance
Long term care in a nursing home can be costly to an estate. Medical bills are a key reason why you need to be covered. Long-term care insurance soften the blow of these costs so that the remainder of your estate can stay intact to support your other needs and also support your loved ones with an inheritance. The younger you are the lower the cost.
Purchase Life Insurance
Individuals with young children make the decision to purchase life insurance as a substitute for their income in the instance of their untimely demise. However, life insurance can also be an effective estate planning strategy later in life. Life insurance provides beneficiaries with tax-free funds to help offset tax obligations related to inheriting other property. It can also provide a substitute income for one’s spouse, or elderly parents or other individuals who will still be dependent on you for financial support.
Maximize Your Retirement Contributions
One can grow your estate plan by maximizing your retirement contributions for the next several years.
Consider Gifting
A way to reduce gift or estate tax is to make annual gifts to beneficiaries. This provides many advantages, as gifts given to people during your lifetime reduce tax liability and quell infighting later if your beneficiaries don’t agree with how these things would have been left in your will. You can also make donations to charity. More sophisticated options like a charitable remainder unitrust or annuity trust reduce your capital gains taxes while also donating funds to charity.
Plan for Disability
A comprehensive estate plan must include provisions in case you become disabled. Documents needed would include a power of attorney that gives someone the right to act on your behalf to manage your finances, a living will that puts your wishes regarding end-of-life care in writing, and a health care proxy that can make medical decisions for you if you can’t make them for yourself.
Set up a Trust
Leaving money or other property to a beneficiary in a will may not provide the type of structure posthumously wished for. Beneficiaries get to use the property as he or she sees fit when they are gifted it through a will. A trust allows you to choose a trustee to be responsible your property according to the instructions you leave. It leaves instructions like paying for the college education of your 20-year-old son who waste the inheritance.
Conclusion
Planning is important for almost everything in life. When it comes to wealth management, it is also important to consider who takes up what you have worked hard for in the event of incapacitation or death. Estate planning allows you to appropriate your wealth and assets to those that you wish to benefit from it. If you engage it right, then you ensure that your beneficiaries enjoy an easier time and avoid any potential conflicts.
