If you wish to create a new trust or update an existing estate plan, you will need skill and expertise across many disciplines: tax, estate planning, and legal services. Look for a service provider who can seamlessly integrate the services you need to provide a much more comprehensive level of insight and advice at every step of the way.
Are your concerns limited to protecting your home and family, or is your investment and business portfolio more international in scope and flavor? There are risks associated with international business ownership and offshore investment, and you will require insightful analysis and expert counsel while leveraging economies of scale.
There are several reasons to create a new trust or update an existing estate plan based on the changes we've all experienced in the past several months alone. These include but are not limited to:
- Moving exemptions between separate trusts
- Analyzing the benefit of existing trusts
- Changes in federal or state laws and tax code (such as cuts in IRS budget and staffing, as well as the potential sunset of critical components of the TCJA)
- Changes in family relationships and dynamics
- Health concerns or challenges in the lives of the grantors or the beneficiaries
- Provision for special needs
- Significant increase or decrease in the value of property or assets
Every family, individual, and situation is completely different. Look for experienced estate planning, tax, and trust attorneys who can comprehensively review existing trust and estate planning documents and answer any questions you might have. Your service provider should carefully analyze your goals and walk you comfortably through the steps necessary to plan for your family, beneficiaries and the causes you care so deeply about.
Tax attorneys review the impact of taxation across the breadth of your portfolio or the impact of probate upon unprotected assets such as the family home or a business. Small business owners value the security of knowing an effective business succession plan is in place to protect ongoing company operations, while the next generation prepares to take the reins or a new management team is in place.
Whether you own your own home or manage multiple investment or business assets here in the United States or worldwide doesn't matter.
These are changing times and require keen attention to all foreign and domestic assets and investments. Is now the right time to create a new trust or update an existing estate plan or business succession strategy?
