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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Most financial planners agree that there’s just no way to know for sure what will be heading down the pike for estate tax law. But what all California estate planners and attorneys across the nation agree on is the need to stay in the know.

Financial planners suggest reviewing and renewing your estate plan at least once every four to five years. But in the wake of these changes – and potential changes – it’s wise to have a discussion with your Newport Beach estate planning attorney as soon as possible if you haven’t had the chance to prepare for what may be the biggest hit to estate plans in more than a decade.

Discuss ways to “ironclad” your estate as much as possible before the end of 2010. Even those with phenomenally planned trusts won’t necessarily be safe. You need to know what you may be facing. Contact your Southern California estate plan lawyer today and start readying your estate for the estate tax transition.

As of right now [February 2010] the federal estate tax is not enacted. However, no one can say with any level of certainty when it will be revived. Many sources say that as long as you die before the end of 2010 your estate will be safe. Morbid as it may sound, it seems humorous that you’d have to plan to die to keep your estate from being taxed into oblivion.

The New York Times went as far as to say that most likely, if the grantor of the estate passes before midnight on December 2010, their estate will be able to be divided among the beneficiaries without estate tax.

But is this true?

As of this moment, the plan is that estate tax will go into effect on January 1, 2011… At a rate of 55% unless your estate is less than $1 million. This heavy taxation has many people reeling, especially those who were able to squirrel away healthy fortunes even through the subprime crisis and economic fallout of 2008 and 2009.

While some congresspersons are pushing for a retroactive enactment of the estate tax to have an effect on estates that were executed from the onset of 2010 forward, chances are that it just won’t happen. Most people are happy about this, while others who have larger estates – and no plans to jump off a bridge – are more than a little miffed.

With the level of complexity associated with estate tax law, it just doesn’t make sense not to retain the counsel of a California estate planning attorney. You need to be 100% sure of exactly how your estate will be affected if you die unexpectedly this year, or if you die anytime beyond January 1, 2011. A Newport Beach asset protection lawyer can tell you exactly what the current estate laws are – and that’s extremely important because they could change every other day for the rest of 2010. Stay updated and know the rights of your beneficiaries and what they may face after your passing.

In many cases, a great percentage of a person’s liquid assets may be held in a 401(k), Roth IRA, IRA, or other type of deferred compensation or retirement plan. Many of these plans will keep your assets safe in the event of a lawsuit, but again, the only way to be 100 percent sure of this is to discuss the parameters of the plan with your Orange County asset protection attorney.

While deferred compensation and retirement plans may keep your money safe in certain situations, laws change, and you must have a firewall to protect what is rightfully yours. That’s why you must have proper liability and/or malpractice insurance, depending on your profession. Protecting your liquid and hard assets with liability insurance is a way to create some peace of mind. Keeping your money in retirement funds will create more peace of mind. But if you’re the kind of person who wants to make sure that all your bases are covered, talk to your Orange County estate planning lawyer about the options you have for creating trusts for your retirement plan(s), your home, and the various soft and hard assets you use to run your business. Separating assets by way of trusts or by including them in different LLCs, you can avoid a lawsuit against your whole estate or whole worth.

Discuss the options you have for protecting your money: Whether it’s retirement plans or liability insurance, trusts, or a combination of all three, you can rest easy knowing that a highly experienced lawyer has reviewed your assets and can tailor a plan to meet your specific estate planning needs.

Many people erroneously think that they have a simple estate, or one in which there won’t be arguments over. These people therefore choose not to obtain the help and guidance of California asset protection lawyer who can handle every aspect of estate planning procedures to the letter of the current laws and in a manner that does not leave anything open for interpretation. What can ensue is an attack on your estate.

Your estate – and the assets listed therein – are subject to unnecessary probate or could take a hit for several reasons. The first and most easily avoidable is how formally and technically the trust, will and estate plan were put together. In other words, if the documents were not written, filed, and handled in the proper legal manner, there are more likely to be errors that can make your assets vulnerable. This is why the help of an experienced California estate planning lawyer is so crucial.

Be careful who you trust and know that who you bring to the table with your attorney will have influence on your decisions and how things proceed. The person(s) you choose to be with you when making decisions or those who are witnesses to the execution of your will must absolutely have your best interest at heart. Never bring someone who overpowers you or tries to take the floor. If it’s best for you to meet with your attorney alone during the planning process, do that – it will keep you from being unnecessarily influenced by parties that may not have a stake in the trust.

Last, make sure you’re not pulling the wool over your own eyes – if you’ve been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, or another progressive mental illness, finding this out after your death could nullify your will if it is found to have been signed after a diagnosis. The best thing you can do is tell your Southern California estate planning lawyer and let them help you take the proper steps to safeguard your assets and your loved ones.

A California last will and testament is where you begin. If you have previously drafted a will that is no longer current, it is imperative that your first priority be to update this will. A will is where you decide who will be the guardian of your child(ren) and where you will name the beneficiaries of your estate. If you do not have an up-to-date will, any trust you have created with the help of your Newport Beach asset protection lawyer may not be executable — certainly not without probate.

A California durable power of attorney is another crucial document. This document will name the person who may act on your behalf in a number of situations; if you become mentally incompetent or otherwise incapacitated, this person will handle all manner of financial transactions, including paying bills, handling bank accounts and insurance matters. This person may also have access to your estate and have the responsibility to decide who gets what in the event of your death. This is a unique document for everyone and how it is written will determine how much responsibility the power of attorney has.

A California healthcare directive will name your medical power of attorney. This person is entrusted with matters of your health when you are unable to make decisions yourself. Your medical power of attorney will be charged with carrying out the wishes you delineate in your healthcare directive. This can mean making decisions about organ donation, burial, and so on. Just because you know who this person is in your own mind does not mean they will be allowed to make these decisions — hence the importance of including their name and all of your wishes in writing in your healthcare directive.

A California living trust will name and hold any real property you own. While a living trust has other benefits that we have previously discussed on this blog, as a cornerstone of Newport Beach estate planning, the living trust allows you to name beneficiaries, keep real estate from undue taxation, and above all, help your loved ones avoid time consuming probate.

If you have questions about what documents you may need in addition to these, contact your Newport Beach asset protection lawyer today for more details.