The most comprehensive -- yet easy to read -- guide to estate planning on the market! Learn how to create an estate plan and protect your family
Plan Your Estate covers everything from the basics of wills and living trusts to sophisticated tax-saving strategies. The authors give you straightforward, plain-English explanations of every significant estate-planning option available, so you can make the best decisions for you and those you love.
The book covers:
avoid probate leave property through a will or trust use life insurance to provide for your loved ones name a guardian for your minor child leave property to a young person plan for incapacity implement strategies specific to business owners reduce estate taxes make final arrangements
The 10th edition is completely revised with the latest federal and state laws, plus updated estate and gift tax information, and enhanced discussions about 529 plans, same-sex marriage, tax-saving trusts, and retirement benefits. (20080201)
Planning your estate is one of the most complicated endeavors you'll ever undertake, yet its results are also the most far-reaching; after all, it will continue to affect those you care about long after you no longer can. So it's worth understanding all the options and ramifications, being personally involved, and doing it right. This Nolo Press guide to estate planning is an excellent source of information on the many various details and considerations that you need to take into account--such as children and probate, estate and gift taxes, second marriages, and a wide variety of trust options (charitable, generation-skipping, spendthrift, living, and educational, for starters). It delves into the factors that affect married people versus single, the laws regarding children, types of beneficiaries and wills, plus joint tenancy, life insurance, retirement benefits, taxes, and organ donation. Showing a number of sample estate plans, explaining what hiring a lawyer can do for you (and how to choose a good one), how to do your own research, and including a glossary of estate-planning terms, Clifford and Jordan give you the tools to decide for yourself how you want your estate disposed of--and to make sure that's what your legal documents reflect. --Stephanie Gold
