Estate Planning
A sound estate plan will assist you in creating, using, preserving, and protecting your wealth. Our clients gain comfort in knowing they have an estate plan that will carry out their wishes. We will work with you to achieve your objectives regarding charitable giving, wealth preservation, and caring for future generations of your family. CPAs fulfill a key role in the estate planning team in addressing various tax issues and filing returns. We can also help organize your estate planning team, which typically includes accountants, attorneys, life insurance professionals, trust officers, and financial planners.
Our estate planning services include:
- Preparation of comprehensive estate plans
- Preparation of gift tax returns
- Assist with necessary filings and evaluate options such as grantor trusts, credit shelter trusts, and charitable remainder trusts
- Advise regarding buy-sell agreements
- Preparation of fiduciary income tax returns for estates and trusts
- Review of estate planning documents including wills, trusts, deeds, employment contracts, and insurance policies
- Assistance with accounting for probate assets
- Preparation of estate tax returns
- Post-Mortem Planning for estates which failed to properly plan prior to death
- Serve as executors or trustees
After your free initial consultation, we will take the following steps to ensure your estate plan meets your objectives:
- Gather documents relevant to your estate plan such as business documents, deeds, insurance, asset balances, the details of your family tree, and legal documents such as prenuptials, property settlements, wills, trusts, etc.
- Discuss your objectives for your estate, providing for your family, lifetime gifts to your family, and charitable donations
- Work with you to outline the financials of your estate including areas of tax liability and tax savings
- Review your estate plan in detail through several meetings with you, your attorney, and other relevant professionals as necessary
- When appropriate and with your request, hold meetings with family and heirs, to be sure they understand your desires upon death and their roles
- Assist with re-titling assets necessary for proper distribution of assets upon death
Estate planning can seem like an overwhelming process at first. Vickie and her team have the knowledge and experience to guide you through this process and are committed to working toward your best interests.
Victoria Martin is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning (CSEP®). and Personal Financial Specialist (PFS®) Her extensive experience in income tax planning and compliance is vital to estate planning, which can have many tax consequences. It is vital to plan ahead to ensure that your estate plan not only achieves your objectives, but also maximizes tax savings.
Contact Vickie to discuss your estate planning needs.
