Estate Planning in the United States
Legal Materials
FindLaw links to estate-planning information available online. To find treatises on estate planning in a particular state, see Searching the Law: The States by Francis R. Doyle (last published in 2003). The Estates, Gifts and Trusts Portfolios in BNA’s Tax Management Portfolios series (mostly the 800s) provide detailed discussions of a wide range of estate planning strategies and vehicles. Natalie Choate’s Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits (Ataxplan Publications) is a classic treatise on the topic.
Instruments
Living Trusts
Some people use a living trust to keep their assets out of probate (i.e. the the court process of distributing such assets after death). Probate, in fact, can be expensive, time consuming, and very often a big hassle for the family. Most U.S. estates do not benefit from probate, and therefore it makes sense, in those estates, the use of probate-avoidance tools such as living trusts.
By making a living trust, the person transfers assets and rights into the trust, names beneficiaries for that assets, and names someone to be the trustee of the trust. When that person die, usually the trustee simply transfers the assets to the people that person named (beneficiaries). No probate court is, then, required.
Besides a living trust, that person may still made a will to name guardians for any young children and to name beneficiaries for any assets that is not transferred into the trust.
Living Wills
For information about living wills, please click here.
Financial Powers of Attorney
Some people use a financial power of attorney (POA) to name someone to take care of their finances when they aren’t able to. If they make their power of attorney “durable”, then the POA will continue to be valid even if they become incapacitated.
Powers of attorney that aren’t durable may be useful for specific needs, like giving members of their family the ability to sign checks for them while they are out of the United States, for example.
When drafting a financial durable power of attorney, people name someone they trust to be their “attorney-in-fact” (or, in many U.S. states, their “agent”). Of course, in the durable POA, the drafters will state exactly what powers their “attorney-in-fact” or “agent” will have.
Main Topics of Estate Planning
This entry in the American Encyclopedia has been organized to address the following topics, among others:
- Estate Planning : Estate and Gift Taxes
- Estate Planning : Guardianships and Conservatorships
- Estate Planning : Intestacy
- Estate Planning : Life Insurance
- Estate Planning : Power of Attorney
- Estate Planning : Probate and Executors
- Estate Planning : Trusts
- Estate Planning : Wills
Main Elements of Estate Planning
Most Popular Entries related to Estate Planning
- Estate Planning (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Checklist (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Trusts (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Basics (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Documents (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Books (in the United States)
- Estate Planning Definition (in the United States)
See Also
Tax and Estate Planning with Real Estate, Partnerships, and LLCs Database
This is a database related to interests in and transfers of real estate, in the following material: General Treatises, Forms, and Practice Guides. A description of this real estate database is provided below:
Full text of PLI's Tax and Estate Planning with Real Estate, Partnerships, and LLCs, which covers tax planning options and estate planning strategies involving real estate that help reduce or defer taxes, protect assets, and avoid liabilities.
Further information on United States legal research databases, including real property databases, are provided following the former link.
Resources
See Also
- Estate Cases
- Tax
- Trusts
- Caregiver
- Real Estate Investment Trusts
- Neighborhood Real Estate Trusts
- Estate
- Threshold Planning Quantity
- Decedent’s Estate
- Power of Attorney by states
- Family Planning
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