Do you have the right players on your team?
Properly taking care of yourself and your family involves many facets. You should be concerned with your physical and mental health, as well as your financial health and the health of your estate plan.
To ensure that you are properly taken care of, you need the right team supporting you. Consider including the following players on your team: your estate planning attorney, financial advisor, insurance professional, accountant/CPA, and possibly a spiritual advisor. Each one has their own specialty, and they can help establish the most comprehensive estate and financial plan to protect and provide for you and your family.
An estate planning attorney is your guide in arranging your legal affairs so that trusted people are authorized to make decisions for you when you cannot. Your estate planning attorney also helps ensure that your money and property are handled and given to your loved ones in the manner you want after your death. As your legal counsel, we are well-versed in the strategies to accomplish your estate planning goals.
A financial advisor plays an important role by being able to understand your specific financial goals and investment objectives. He or she is able to craft a financial plan to ensure you have sufficient cash to meet your needs and live the lifestyle you want. A financial advisor can also help ensure that there are ample resources available at death to pass on to your loved ones. If you are an individual with high net worth, financial planning often moves beyond retirement planning to laying the foundation for multi-generational wealth or achieving philanthropic objectives.
An insurance professional provides an analysis of your current and future insurance needs. For many estate planning goals, life insurance is critical to ensuring that there are funds available to take care of your beneficiaries. This is especially true if you own a business or have other large accounts or valuable pieces of property that are difficult to divide between beneficiaries.
An accountant or CPA brings valuable tax planning strategies to the planning process. Although much of the focus in estate planning has historically been on gift, generationskipping transfer, or estate taxes, a comprehensive tax plan must consider the impact of all taxes you and your beneficiaries may owe. While you may have great goals for the future, we want to make sure they are not achieved at too high of a tax cost.
A spiritual advisor can offer insight and provide guidance for you to express what matters most to you in your planning. They can help you share lessons, stories, and experiences, along with moral, personal, and spiritual values with the next generation through the estate and financial plans. By approaching your planning from a spiritual and value-based perspective, you can shape how you are remembered. Planning with a focus on your morals, values, and beliefs also provides valuable context for your family about why an estate or financial plan is designed in the way it is and how your family can continue your traditions and use what has been left to them in a responsible and charitable way.
With all of these players on your team, you can rest assured that you will have a comprehensive plan that will meet your goals and benefit your loved ones in the future. We are happy to work with any of your existing advisors or provide you with recommendations for needed advisors. Collaborating together, we can help ensure that your wishes and goals for the future are carried out correctly and that every component is coordinated to reach your ultimate goals. Call us today to schedule an appointment to review your existing plan or create a new, comprehensive estate plan using the team approach.
Attorney Adam Hansen hosts free monthly seminars about wills, trusts, and long-term care. The next seminars will be 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Main Library, and 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Foothills Library. RSVP by calling 928783-4575 or visit YumaEstatePlanning. com.