Hendrick, Rascoe, Zitron & Long

While nobody wants to think about death or disability, establishing an estate plan is one of the most important steps you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones. Proper estate planning not only puts you in charge of your finances, it can also spare your loved ones of the expense, delay and frustration associated with managing your affairs when you pass away or become disabled.

You've worked hard your whole life to provide for your family and make your loved ones more secure. Without advanced estate planning strategies, many of your hard earned assets may end up with the IRS and state taxing authorities.

Our firm regularly assists affluent families with such sophisticated planning strategies as Family Limited Partnerships or Limited Liability Companies, Personal Residence Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts and a wide range of charitable gifting techniques to reduce federal estate taxes, gift taxes and generation skipping transfer taxes.A Family Limited Partnership (FLP) is a limited partnership among members of a family.

A Family Limited Partnership (FLP) is a special legal vehicle that can preserve a family business for future generations while helping to shelter assets and reduce overall gift and estate taxes. FLPs are commonly used as part of business succession planning, business continuity plans, and often serve as an integral component of an estate plan for high net worth individuals.

Many people have preconceived notions about trusts and believe that they are only for multi-millionaires who wish to leave large trust funds to their children. However, this is far from the truth; trusts can be invaluable tools in the estate plans of millions of individuals. Trusts are simply an arrangement where one party holds property on behalf of another party.

While a simple will can provide for the transfer your estate to your loved ones, it does not have special provisions for advanced estate tax planning. Federal estate tax laws were updated in 2013 as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act which provides for an exemption of $5.25 million. This means that each individual can transfer up to $5.25 million in assets free of federal estate taxes.