What is as important as having an up-to-date will, powers of attorney and estate plan?  Telling your loved ones where to find that information, in the event of your untimely death or incapacitation.

As hard as it is for all of us to “plan” for our deaths, doing so is one of the best things we can do for our families.  Adding to their grief and pain by giving them no clue as to where to find your personal and business paperwork should not be a memory you leave behind.

Gather this information in a folder and let your family know where they can find it in case you die unexpectedly or have a health crisis:

Advisors

Provide the name and contact information of any financial advisors, including attorneys, estate planners, CPAs, accountants, etc.

Bank Accounts and Safety Deposit Boxes

Bank name and account numbers for each bank where you have an account.  Include PIN numbers for online banking.  If you have a personal banker, include his or her name as well, with contact information.

Bank name and safety deposit box number as well as contents of the box and location of the key.

Investment And Retirement Accounts

For investment accounts, provide the name of the brokerage, your personal broker, the location of your statement file, account and PIN numbers.

For retirement accounts, provide contact information for plan administrators as well as account and PIN numbers.

Insurance

For all your policies – health, home, car, life, long-term care – provide the name and contact information for the agents as well as account numbers.

Healthcare

For your health care providers, give contact information for physicians as well as Medicare information and any other gap coverage you may have.

House

If you still have a mortgage on your home, provide information on your lender and payment due dates.  Also provide the location of deeds and property titles.  Include contact information for any home service providers – cleaning help, lawn care service, etc.

Credit Cards

Make a photocopy of both sides of each credit card and provide balance and payment information.

Vehicles

Leave information on where title and registration information is kept. Include a photocopy of your driver’s license as well.

Personal

Include a list of your friends and neighbors with email and phone contact information as well as all your email account log-ins and passwords.

This last bit of planning on your part will go a long way toward helping your family cope at a very stressful time.  If you need more information on estate planning and California probate, contact our California estate planning law firm.

According to a recent article from SmartMoney.com, “One straightforward estate-planning tool is a simple gift, taking advantage of the annual $13,000 per person (or $26,000 per couple) gift exclusion. Some parents opt to give that gift in stock rather than cash, which lets the recipient enjoy the profit if stock prices rise. But after the 2009 surge in the market, other people may prefer to wait until death to pass along stocks that have risen sharply; with that arrangement, the recipient may be able to avoid paying taxes.”

California estate planning lawyers can help you understand and plan your gifting to avoid taxation on stocks or cash gifts. Gifting stocks may not be a bad idea in this market — while the value of stocks dropped to staggering lows across many corporations traded on the NYSE, many are on the rise in the first quarter of 2010. Given the pendulum-like nature of stocks, someone gifted stocks after your death may be able to cash them out and enjoy the liquid assets after you pass away. In the meantime, however, that is to say, before you die, gifting the stocks will allow them to continue to increase in value. This means more value for the recipient of the gift — and if you gift to a minor child, you may be able to take advantage of that increase — tax free — before your final will and testament is being read.

Newport Beach asset protection attorneys can tell you more about how gifting can work in your favor as well as that of your loved ones. If you have an interest in working gifting into your estate plan, contact your California asset management lawyer today.

If you live in California and have been a resident for more than a year, you may want to consider taking advantage of a private retirement plan. A private retirement plan is not like a 401(k) or a Roth IRA. It offers benefits that its counterparts cannot, and it’s worth discussing with your estate planning lawyer in California.

Choosing a retirement savings fund can be a tough choice, but in tough economic times and many unsavory characters in the lending business as well as predatory lenders laying in wait for people to slip up, protecting your retirement earnings has never been more important.

A private retirement plan has much better protection when creditors come knocking. Because what it held by a private retirement fund is considered “essential to your retirement,” the protection it offers is a definite upgrade from an IRA, which will only protect your assets to a certain degree and in specific circumstances.

But there’s news about private retirement funds that make them even sweeter: if you don’t have one set up yet, you may do so… and you can transfer monies and other assets from your IRA into your new private retirement plan and the assets will be protected after the transfer is complete.

Conversely, if you have an existing private retirement plan and you’d like to marry it into your IRA, you may do so, and the assets from the private retirement plan will still have the same protection it did before, so long as there is a paper trail that proves the assets were initially within the private retirement plan. You can work with your asset protection lawyer in Orange County to ensure you have all the proper documentation on file.

It’s food for thought and can offer a great deal of protection and can also avoid “fraudulent transfers” during tough times. It’s worth your time to discuss it with an experienced California business transactions attorney.

Protecting your assets is one of the best things you can do to ensure a good future for what you own, especially liquid assets, real property, and intellectual property. You may want to protect your assets for a number of reasons, but probably the top two most common reasons are to protect them from creditors or a spouse in the event of a divorce.

Asset protection in California is a great tool – but it’s a serious tool, and should not be used in a cavalier or careless manner. Those who try to use asset protection after a judgment or divorce papers have already been served are walking a fine line… a line that could be deemed fraud. Once this line has been crossed, the consequences are severe and things will not pan out in your favor.

The proper and responsible thing to do is sit down with a California asset protection attorney BEFORE you experience a life change that could affect your assets. Speak to your attorney about protecting what is rightfully yours before a divorce, before going into a new business , or before entering into any agreement that will mean you owe money to a creditor, including purchasing a new home or car.

So what’s the final word? Use asset protection a) before any major life changes, and b) with the help and guidance of a California asset protection lawyer.

If you have any questions or any uncertainties regarding when you should use asset protection, contact your Newport Beach asset protection lawyer today.

Financial advisors and California estate planners suggest using your 2009 tax return as a guide for any changes you might be considering in 2010 and for the future.

With estate taxes likely being reenacted – at a rate of 55 percent for those estates that are worth more than one million dollars, and with changing conversion rates for Roth IRAs, now is the time to take a look at what kind of return you got (or will be getting) from your 2009 income tax.

Those in the estate planning business, including California asset protection lawyers can tell you that a lot of what you get back in the form of a tax return – if you have a 401(k) or IRA – might be tax free money you’re getting back from the federal government… so it was your money to begin with. This means you may be counting chickens that hatched a while ago. You may want to put this money into trusts or other financial vehicles to help restore what you lost, not as a way to get that flat screen you’ve been wanting.

The idea is to model your estate and other plans for your money and assets after what your 2009 reveals.

Reducing what you pay in taxes from a paycheck might be a good call for your 2010 return. It may not seem fun now, but giving less will mean you owe more next year; but receiving everything in one lump sum at the end of the year often gives people a false sense of “extra money.” In fact, a refund should be used to invest or create wealth for the future and not used for immediate shopping gratification.