While fundamentals of sound estate planning encompass the postponement and minimization of paying taxes, the other objectives of such planning, which are arguably more important, include ensuring that family members are cared for to the extent possible, and the wishes of the decedent are clear and can effectively be carried out.
The need for wills and even trusts is not the exclusive domain of the wealthy. The lack of a valid document expressing the decedent’s intentions leaves a family at the whims of the estate transfer rules devised by a state legislature, and leaves beneficiaries unprotected from their own inexpert judgment in the case of minors and from someone else’s claim on family assets in the case of divorce.
These planning techniques, sanctioned by the Internal Revenue Service, have the added effect of delaying or minimizing taxation, which is definitely an added bonus.
