Five Reasons to Talk with an Inheritance Planning Lawyer
By Barry Zimmer on March 1st, 2018 in Inheritance Planning
Inheritance planning attorneys can provide you with personalized advice in making sure you provide an appropriate inheritance for your loved ones. In many cases, creating your desired legacy and taking care of the people you love will require you to do more than just creating a last will and testament. You may need to use a variety of different legal tools to ensure that the inheritance you offer passes quickly to the next generation and is not at risk of being lost.
If you want to ensure that your family will be protected and provided for, you should reach out to the inheritance planning attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm when you begin to think ahead towards the legacy you want to leave. Zimmer Law Firm can offer personalized advice on the types of tools you should use and the type of plan you should create to provide for your heirs or beneficiaries. There are many reasons why you should take the time to talk with an inheritance planning attorney, including the following five key reasons.
1. An Inheritance Planning Attorney Can Help You Ensure the Timely Transfer of Wealth
If your loved ones depend upon your income, your death could cause a financial disaster for your loved ones. If you expect that your family can be provided for by an inheritance you leave to them, this could be a problem because the probate process can take around a year to complete according to Investopedia. An inheritance planning attorney can help you to make sure assets are able to transfer more quickly through a process such as the trust administration process.
2. An Inheritance Planning Attorney Can Help You to Reduce Costs of Transferring Assets
In most cases, assets transfer through probate. The costs of the probate process can also be very high, with Investopedia estimating it will cost around three to seven percent of the value of an estate to transfer assets through probate. If you want to avoid these costs and transfer assets in a much more cost-effective way, an inheritance planning attorney can help you to use other tools such as trusts or pay on death accounts.
3. An Inheritance Planning Attorney Can Help You to Avoid or Reduce Estate Taxes
If you have a larger estate and you are leaving assets to anyone other than your spouse, it is possible that you will owe estate tax on your assets that you are transferring. You don’t want your heirs or beneficiaries to lose a large portion of their inheritance because your estate has to pay a substantial tax bill. You can work with an inheritance planning attorney to try to reduce or avoid estate tax so more of your wealth can pass on to loved ones instead of going to the government.
4. An Inheritance Planning Attorney Can Assist you In Addressing the Needs of Your Heirs
Your heirs or beneficiaries may have special needs, such as a disability that makes it impossible for them to manage wealth and that necessitates they receive means-tested Medicaid. If you provide an inheritance outside of a special needs trust, you could jeopardize means-tested benefits and the money you provide could be mismanaged or wasted. There are many other scenarios where your heirs or beneficiaries may also have special needs. For example, if you’re leaving money to a minor or to someone irresponsible with money, using trusts could help you to ensure an inheritance is managed appropriately and used wisely.
5. An Inheritance Planning Attorney Can Help you to Ensure Your Wishes are Respected
Contesting a trust is much more difficult than contesting a will in most circumstances. As a result, if you want to maximize the chances your wishes will be respected when it comes to your legacy, you may wish to use a trust or other legal tools to transfer wealth. An inheritance planning lawyer will help you to find the right approach.
Getting Help from Inheritance Planning Attorneys
Inheritance planning attorneys at Zimmer Law Firm can offer you personalized advice on how best to protect and provide for your family members. We can assist you in making use of tools like trusts, pay on death accounts, and other methods of transferring assets in a timely and efficient manner. Whatever your situation, we will create the right plan that is personalized to meet the needs of your heirs or beneficiaries so you can ensure the legacy you leave behind is a strong and powerful legacy.
To find out more about how our firm can help you, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 513-721-1513 at any time to get your personalized inheritance plan underway.