Like many of our successful clients, you may have accumulated a large net worth after years of hard work and effort. With this wealth comes the concern that the government will take a large part of the fruits of your labor or the worry that a family member will not properly manage your estate. At Honkamp Krueger & Co., P.C., we share these same concerns. As a result, we have been helping clients with estate planning services for many years.
Our estate planning process has five goals which reflect your and your family’s best interests:
Protecting your loved ones
In this process, we recommend various trust designs that will best protect your loved ones and reduce or eliminate probate costs.
Reducing the estate tax burden
First, your estate plan is designed so that it properly deploys assets between husband and wife in order to take advantage of the maximum family exemption from estate tax. We also recommend annual exclusion and lifetime gifting strategies to reduce taxes and take advantage of the time value of money by eliminating future appreciation on these assets. We structure the transactions to take advantage of valuation discounts where appropriate to leverage your gifts. For large estates we would look at utilizing the estate tax savings of a GRAT (grantor retained annuity trust), an IDGT (intentionally defective grantor trust) or Dynasty Trust, which avoids the Generation Skipping Tax. Finally, we will calculate for you the estimated estate tax savings of each estate planning strategy.
Providing liquidity in your estate
Your life insurance policies will be reviewed and recommendations made to avoid estate tax on the life insurance proceeds and to provide adequate liquidity to pay estate tax.
Ensuring competent asset management
We will assist you in the selection of the current trustees and/or the successor trustees.
Directing the disposition of your assets according to your wishes
Your current wills and trusts will be reviewed and we will identify any necessary changes to better accomplish your goals. Also, depending on your marital situation and the ability of your spouse to manage the remaining assets, we may recommend a marital QTIP trust. We will also organize your estate and various legal entities to allow you to retain control of the decision making as long as possible.
All of this may seem overwhelming, but it is necessary to protect your hard earned assets from estate taxes or loss through improper management. At Honkamp Krueger, our estate planning professionals have years of experience in helping clients protect their assets. As a result, our clients enjoy the comfort of knowing they are in control of their estate’s destiny.
Contact us today to learn more about estate planning.