Dorota Dyman & Associates Real Estate: 4 Tips to Begin

4 Tips to Begin the Estate-Planning Process

With the responsibility for saving for retirement shifting to workers as companies and the government abandon pension plans, experts say estate planning is crucial step in creating a secure financial future.

“You can either plan accordingly in an efficient and organized manner or just let things happen,” says Ben Barzideh, wealth advisor at wealth management firm Piershale Financial Group, in Crystal Lake, Ill. “When you don’t plan for the transfer of your estate to one generation to the next, you can end up losing more money to taxes than you had to.”

Not having a clear estate plan can not only be costly to your beneficiaries, it can also create unnecessary heartache, warns trusts and estates attorney Avi Kestenbaum. Estate planning used to only be an obligation of the wealthy, but that’s no longer the case.

“Anyone who has a penny to his or her name, children, or might even be coming into money in the future, needs to have the basic estate planning documents,” Kestenbaum says.

Kestenbaum adds that in the past, estate planning was all about minimizing taxes, and while that still plays a role it also now includes “elder law planning.”

“People are living longer and you need to make sure your money will last; it’s about making your IRA stretch as long as possible to cover your basic needs, cover long-term health-care costs and make sure the people you want to inherit your assets will. ”READ FULL ARTICLE AT WRITERSCAFE.ORG