Everyone deserves peace of mind in their lives, especially when contemplating the future. Life offers no guarantees, but legal solutions exist that can ease your concerns. You need an estate plan.
Proper estate planning can give you control over what happens to you, your property, and your family during your life and after death. A strong estate plan allows you to dictate your wishes and spares your loved ones the distress of wondering how to honor your wishes or fighting over your assets in court.
But where do you start? Get a Connecticut estate planning lawyer from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP on your side. Firm founder Michael J. Amoruso has nearly 30 years of experience in estate planning, elder law, and long-term care planning. He offers compassionate support and professional advice to help you protect your assets and make informed decisions about what happens to your estate when you die.
Our law firm’s signature comprehensive estate planning service examines every aspect of your life before crafting a custom plan that does exactly what you want it to.
Already have an estate plan? Allow Amoruso & Amoruso LLP to give it a thorough review. Michael J. Amoruso will identify any areas that could use revisions or corrections and advise you on options for making it better based on your individual goals. Be assured that, if no changes are needed, he will tell you and you will have the peace of mind that your plan accomplishes your objectives. Contact us today to learn what a Connecticut estate planning attorney can do to secure your legacy.
What’s the Importance of Having an Estate Plan?
Did you believe estate planning was only for older adults or those with a high net worth? It’s a common myth. People of any age or income bracket — including yours — should have an estate plan. Your assets include everything you own, from bank accounts and IRAs to family heirlooms, homes, cars, and other valuables. When you’ve worked hard to grow your wealth, you deserve to preserve those assets and maximize what you pass to heirs.
An estate plan can protect your property’s value and ensure it goes to the people you want. But it also allows you to protect and provide for young children and other dependents should the worst happen to you. You can use estate planning to safeguard their inheritances until they are mature enough to manage them independently. You can also specify your wishes if you become incapacitated and need someone to make decisions on your behalf. All of these steps can help avoid family conflicts later on.
What Is Comprehensive Estate Planning?
Traditional estate planning focuses on deciding how to distribute your assets after death and who should inherit your wealth. But our comprehensive estate planning digs deeper. It is a holistic approach that takes a big-picture view of your life and considers various contingencies to identify what legal tools will best serve your needs.
This all-encompassing approach can include using wills, trusts, advance directives, long-term financial planning, tax planning, long-term care planning, and other tools as needed to ensure you maintain your quality of life and protect your assets without unnecessary stress.
What Makes Up Comprehensive Estate Planning?
A comprehensive estate plan will incorporate multiple tools and structures to protect you and your family’s interests. It can help you achieve future goals, including preparing for your retirement. Aspects of comprehensive estate planning may include the following:
Elder Law/Long-Term Care Planning
Long-term care planning involves financial planning to ensure you can afford nursing homes or long-term healthcare as you age. Objectives may include ensuring your eligibility for Medicaid benefits or setting aside funds to pay for care.
Wills
A will serves as the centerpiece of your comprehensive estate plan. It allows you to distribute assets outside your estate plan, designate a person to administer your estate after your death, and nominate someone to care for your minor children if you pass away suddenly.
Trusts
You can use trusts to preserve your assets and transfer wealth to succeeding generations. In a trust, a trustee holds and manages property or money for the trust’s beneficiaries according to your wishes and the terms of the agreement.
Living Trusts
Living trusts become effective during your lifetime. With a living trust, you can direct the distribution of assets after your death while still enjoying the benefits and use of your property during your lifetime. A living trust can be revocable, meaning it can be changed at any time. You can also set up an irrevocable trust if you don’t want to amend it.
Estate/Gift/Income Tax Planning
This planning aims to reduce the tax burdens on your estate through exemptions, deductions, charitable gifting, and other strategies. The goal is to preserve the value of assets for your beneficiaries.
Financial Planning
A comprehensive estate plan should also work with your financial planning goals. These may include saving for your children’s college, growing investments, or building a retirement nest egg.
Retirement Planning
Retirement represents a major life milestone and a change to your regular income stream. Retirement planning focuses on preparing for the shift by developing a wealth preservation strategy to maintain your living standard once you stop working.
Medicaid Planning
Medicaid planning seeks to preserve and pass on assets while ensuring you qualify for means-tested government benefits.
Planning to Leave Assets to Loved Ones in a Way That Protects the Assets
All families are different, and your estate plan should reflect that. Depending on your loved ones’ circumstances, you may need to use special tools to protect them.
Assets from Divorce, Creditors, Spendthrifts, and Substance Abuse
Various estate planning strategies can protect your loved one’s inheritance from divorce, creditors, or reckless spending. For example, a spendthrift trust can shield assets from creditors while still allowing you to provide a beneficiary with an incremental income stream to prevent overspending.
Business Succession Planning
If you own a business, comprehensive estate planning should include business succession planning. This will ensure your family business thrives after your retirement, disability, or death. Succession planning includes identifying your company’s next leader and developing policies for them to follow.
Special Needs Planning
If you have a loved one with special needs or a severe disability, your estate plan should include strategies to provide for their needs after you die. Some of the standard special needs planning tools include the following:
- Supplemental Needs Trusts – This is a specific type of trust designed to use third-party or inherited dollars to enhance the quality of life for a beneficiary, over and above any government benefits. These funds do not count toward a beneficiary’s resource limits for government programs, allowing them to remain eligible for these benefits.
- Special Needs Trusts – This is a specific type of trust designed to use an individual’s own assets to enhance his/her life. The assets held in these trusts do not count toward a beneficiary’s resource limits for government programs, allowing them to remain eligible for these benefits.
- Supported Decision-Making – Supported decision-making respects the independence of a person with special needs who can make certain life decisions. A trusted team of advisors can assist the individual with making legal, financial, and medical choices for themselves.
- Conservatorship – Connecticut law allows the probate court to appoint a conservator to make medical, financial, and legal decisions for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Charitable Planning
Charitable planning can help protect the wealth you leave to your family by minimizing estate or inheritance taxes. This is accomplished through deductions obtained from charitable giving.
What Are Other Elements of a Successful Estate Plan?
A comprehensive estate plan may also include other tools to protect your or a loved one’s interests, including the following:
- Advance Directives – Advance directives are legal documents such as a health care proxy, a power of attorney, and a disposition of remains. A Health Care Proxy appoints someone you choose to make medical decisions (including end-of-life decisions) for you. A Power of Attorney will allow a trusted family member or friend to handle your financial and/or legal matters. This can be helpful if you face an illness or injury or you lack mental capacity. With life care planning, your family has the guidance and tools necessary to make financial and health care decisions when you cannot do so.
- Conservatorship – In your estate plan, you can designate an adult (or multiple adults) to serve as your conservator if you become incapacitated. Connecticut conservatorships include a “conservator of the person,” who oversees personal needs like food, clothes, and health care. You can also name a “conservator of the estate” to manage your financial affairs.
- Probate, Estate, and Trust Administration – Your estate plan should also identify who you want to settle your affairs, distribute your property, and manage your trust assets after death. A Connecticut estate planning lawyer can advise on who you may want to select for these jobs.
How Much Does a Connecticut Estate Plan Cost?
Estate planning costs depend on factors such as the size and complexity of your estate and the tools needed to manage your assets. More complicated estate plans tend to cost more. However, the benefits of estate planning far outweigh the costs. An effective estate plan can save you and your family money by reducing tax liabilities and the costs of probating your assets after death. It can also provide reassurance that your affairs are in order and the people you love will be cared for.
How Can a Connecticut Estate Planning Attorney Help?
With so many estate planning tools and strategies, figuring out where to start can seem challenging. Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. An experienced Connecticut estate planning lawyer from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP can guide you through each step of the estate planning process.
When you hire Michael J. Amoruso to develop your comprehensive estate plan, he will:
- Identify and catalog your estate assets
- Help you select potential executors, trustees, or conservators
- Draft your last will and testament
- Recommend trusts to protect your assets
- Facilitate asset transfers
- Prepare advance directives such as health care proxies and powers of attorney
- Review beneficiary designations on life insurance policies or retirement accounts
- Discuss ways to reduce tax burdens and maximize what you leave your heirs
- Plan charitable contributions if philanthropy is important to you
- Develop a business succession plan, if necessary
Put simply, Amoruso & Amoruso LLP will ensure that you have an estate plan that will make a difference starting today and benefit your family in the long term.
Contact an Experienced Estate Planning Lawyer in Connecticut Today
Amoruso & Amoruso LLP can help you assemble a comprehensive estate plan that achieves your goals and protects your interests. Or, if you want a second opinion on your existing estate plan, Michael J. Amoruso can advise on whether it is still set up to position you for success. Contact us today to learn more from our premier estate planning attorney.
