Estate Planning

What Exactly Is Estate Planning And When Do We Need It?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / January 16, 2023 / Comments Off on What Exactly Is Estate Planning And When Do We Need It?

Estate planning encompasses a wide variety of subject matter, from how your assets may be titled and who is the beneficiary of your insurance to IRAs and 401(k)s, to the creation of business entities, the establishment of buy-sell agreements, the creation of trusts and gifting during your lifetime. The process allows you, rather than a…

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Is Estate Planning Just For What Happens After I Die Or Can Estate Planning Benefit Me During My Lifetime?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / January 16, 2023 / Comments Off on Is Estate Planning Just For What Happens After I Die Or Can Estate Planning Benefit Me During My Lifetime?

In my experience, it is often much more important to plan in anticipation of incapacity during your lifetime. For example, what would happen if one spouse becomes incapacitated, needing to go into a nursing home and the other spouse needs to sell the primary residence during that time? Without a plan in place, such as…

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IRS Issues Inflation Adjustments for Transfer Taxes Related to Estates and Trusts

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 7, 2022 / Comments Off on IRS Issues Inflation Adjustments for Transfer Taxes Related to Estates and Trusts

In Rev. Proc 2022-38, the IRS provided inflation adjustments for various IRS Code provisions for taxable year 2023, including many relevant to trusts, estates, and gifts. The 2023 inflation adjustments include: The basic estate and gift tax exclusion amount (and the generation skipping transfer tax amount) will increase to $12,920,000 from the 2002 exemption of…

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Year-End Gifting

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 7, 2022 / Comments Off on Year-End Gifting

Towards the end of the year, some families consider making financial gifts to others as part of their year-end tax planning. As part of your estate plan, you may consider sharing your financial success with your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones before your death. First, let’s review gifts that aren’t taxable. Gifts that are…

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What Exactly Is a Trust, and Do I Need Different Types of Trusts in My Estate Plan?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 25, 2021 / Comments Off on What Exactly Is a Trust, and Do I Need Different Types of Trusts in My Estate Plan?

A trust is essentially a contract between two people, one who is the grantor of the trust and the other the trustee or beneficiary. These can be the same individual, the grantor of the trust can also be the trustee. That’s contrary to contract law where generally you cannot enter into a contract with yourself,…

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What Happens If Somebody Dies With Property But No Will?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 24, 2021 / Comments Off on What Happens If Somebody Dies With Property But No Will?

It is a common assumption between spouses that at the death of the first spouse to die, the surviving spouse will inherit all the deceased’s property. This is usually not the case. If the individual or the deceased spouse has any children, whether from the first marriage or by the marriage to the surviving spouse,…

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Administration Of Proper and Intestate Estates

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 24, 2021 / Comments Off on Administration Of Proper and Intestate Estates

We can demonstrate the importance of estate planning by comparing two estates with different approaches to estate planning. On one side of the continuum, we have an individual who has assets but no estate planning. On the other end of the continuum, we’ll have someone who has assets of the exact same nature, but they…

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How Often Should I Review My Estate Planning Documents?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 24, 2021 / Comments Off on How Often Should I Review My Estate Planning Documents?

[vc_row el_class=”container”][vc_column][vc_column_text]In a perfect world, you should review your estate planning documents every time there is a life event, such as a, Birth, Death, Marriage, Divorce, or Retirement. You also want to review them with the acquisition or sale of a significant asset, like that of a business. These are times to pull out your…

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What Are the Most Important Components That Should Be Part of Everyone’s Estate Plan?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 24, 2021 / Comments Off on What Are the Most Important Components That Should Be Part of Everyone’s Estate Plan?

[vc_row el_class=”container”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Determining what the objectives are, implementing a plan that meets those objectives in a way that conforms to the laws of the tax code and treasury regulations is important when planning any estate. To accomplish this, our approach is to sit down to listen to the client. The first question we ask is, “Tell…

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What Exactly Is Estate Planning And When Do We Need It?

By James E. Hickmon, JD, MBA, CFP® / November 24, 2021 / Comments Off on What Exactly Is Estate Planning And When Do We Need It?

[vc_row el_class=”container”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Estate planning encompasses a wide variety of subject matter, from how your assets may be titled and who is the beneficiary of your insurance to IRAs and 401(k)s, to the creation of business entities, the establishment of buy-sell agreements, the creation of trusts and gifting during your lifetime. The process allows you, rather than…

Read More