Estate

Effective estate management enables you to manage your affairs during your lifetime and control the distribution of your wealth after death. An effective estate strategy can spell out your healthcare wishes and ensure that they're carried out – even if you are unable to communicate. It can even designate someone to manage your financial affairs should you be unable to do so.

Featured Video

Safeguard Your Digital Estate

If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

Featured Presentation

Principles of Preserving Wealth

How federal estate taxes work, plus estate management documents and tactics.

When Do You Need a Will?

When do you need a will? The answer is easy: Right Now.

Estate Management Checklist

Is your estate in order? This short quiz may help you assess your overall strategy.

When Special Care Is Needed: The Special Needs Trust

A special needs trust helps care for a special needs child when you’re gone.

• Articles

  Trends in Charitable Giving

  Some people may want a more advanced gifting strategy that can maximize their gift and generate potential tax benefits.

  Will Power

  Preparing for the eventual distribution of your assets may not sound enticing. But a will puts the power in your hands.

  Succeeding at Business Succession

  There are a number of reasons for business owners to consider a business succession plan sooner rather than later.

  Yours, Mine and Ours: Estate Strategies for Second Marriages

  Second marriages are a trigger event to revisit any existing estate strategies.

  Revising Estate Strategy Assumptions

  Estate tax exemptions rules appear to be stabilizing, prompting many to reconsider conventional estate strategies.

  Understanding the Alternate Valuation Date

  Executors can value the estate on the date of death, or on its six-month anniversary —the “Alternate Valuation Date."

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• Calculators

  What Is My Life Expectancy?

  Estimate how many years you may need retirement assets or how long to provide income to a surviving spouse or children.

  What's My Potential Estate Tax?

  This calculator helps estimate your federal estate tax liability.

  What Is My Current Net Worth?

  Use this calculator to estimate your net worth by adding up your assets and subtracting your liabilities.

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• Presentations

  Principles of Preserving Wealth

  How federal estate taxes work, plus estate management documents and tactics.

  View all presentations

• Videos

  When Special Care Is Needed: The Special Needs Trust

  A special needs trust helps care for a special needs child when you’re gone.

  Safeguard Your Digital Estate

  If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

  When Do You Need a Will?

  When do you need a will? The answer is easy: Right Now.

  Charitable Giving: Smart from the Heart

  Do you have causes that you want to support with donations?

  Estate Management 101

  A will may be only one of the documents you need—and one factor to consider—when it comes to managing your estate.

  Exit Strategies of the Rich and Famous

  Estate conservation is too important to put off. Do you have a smart exit strategy?

  View all videos