Your Estate Matters is a book which has grown out of my weekly newspaper column. It answers, in a no-nonsense way, questions about the estate planning, taxation, estate settlement and financial issues faced by most ordinary Americans. It is not written for lawyers and accountants. It is written for average people who want to better understand their financial options and better understand what their financial advisors are trying to say.
Your Estate Matters sets out to demystify confusing legal terms, describe planning techniques and offer practical down-to-earth explanations about the complicated ins and outs of estate planning and estate administration. It also includes other information that affects every family’s life and pocketbook: income tax, living wills, trusts, pre-nuptial agreements, college savings, and retirement planning. The information is useful to retirees, business people, and children of aging parents as well as those planning their own estates.
Patti S. Spencer, Esq., is widely recognized as a preeminent estate planning attorney and is the founder and owner of Spencer Law Firm. In her 20 years of practicing law she has assisted both clients and other professionals with estate planning, probate, taxation, and closely-held business issues. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dickinson College and received her J.D. and LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University School of Law. She has published numerous articles on estate planning topics and is the author of a weekly column, "Taxing Matters," for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.
INTRODUCTION
The ancient Egyptians built elaborate fortresses and tunnels and even posted guards at tombs to stop grave robbers. In today''''s America, we call that estate planning.
Bill Archer, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
Kick the bucket, meet my maker, get hit by a truck, push up daisies, pass onSall the ways we avoid saying it.
When meeting with new clients I never say “it” until they do and I see what euphemism they use. Then we refer to “it” by that phrase for the rest of the meeting. Most people don’t respond well if asked bluntly “who will inherit your property when you die.” So we resort to who will receive your property when you are “called home.”
After getting over the suggestion of mortality, my next job is debunking myths. Thanks to the living trusts mills, many people think probate is worse than death. Probate is not worse than death, a revocable living trust is not a panacea. Find out what probate is. Read this book and find out why it is that settling an estate takes so long and how much it costs.
What happens if you die without a will? No, your property doesn’t go to the state. State law, however, does have a will for you in the form of the intestacy statute. Do you know who gets your property? If your spouse dies without a will, do you get everything he or she had? Probably not. Now that’s a reason to have a willSor at least for your spouse to have one.
How can you avoid paying inheritance and estate taxes? You can’t. But read on for ways to reduce them. Many techniques are available, but all of these techniques run up against the eternal truth of estate planningSyou can’t keep control of all of your assets and also pay no death taxes. All techniques to reduce death taxes involve some loss of control, and in some cases, complete loss of control. You can’t both own the property and not pay death tax on it. That’s a corollary of