Many people think that owning property in joint tenancy means they don’t have to create a will or estate plan. Why bother with a will when all the property is going to your joint tenancy partner anyway? In fact (some people may ask) why not do away with the need for a will altogether and hold property in joint tenancy with my children? The answer to that question is that although joint tenancy may allow your heirs to avoid probate, it carries with it a number of problems and is NOT a replacement for a well-executed will or estate plan.

One of the primary problems with owning property in joint tenancy with your children is that, in the words of Phil Craig in his article Joint Tenancy: How Not to Avoid Probate, “Joint tenancy sure is easy to create, but sure is hard to end.” As Craig illustrates in his article, owning property jointly with your children may seem harmless at first, but what happens if your child gets married or divorced, gets sued, or even joins a cult?

Beyond the essential question of ownership, joint tenancy as an estate planning method falls short in numerous other ways as well; owning property in joint tenancy with your children does not do anything to minimize your estate taxes—In some ways it may actually increase your taxes. Additionally, owning property in joint tenancy with more than one of your children prohibits the other owners from leaving their share of the property to their own heirs.

Finally, even as husband and wife, holding property in joint tenancy has its dangers. If one of you were to become incapacitated or mentally incompetent, the other would have to obtain a conservatorship from the court before being able to sell or take any other legal action with the property. Having the ability to sell or refinance quickly could become a necessity when medical bills are piling up. Look into owning your home as community property instead.

There are ways to avoid making probate a necessity after your death, but joint tenancy—while it may be quick and somewhat easy to achieve—is neither a quick nor easy solution to probate. Take the time to create a quality will or estate plan. Your assets will be protected in the long run, and your heirs will thank you in the end.

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Whether you’re just starting out on your own at the age of 18, or a 65 year old thinking about retirement, or anything in between, financial planning is essential. When most people think about financial planning they think about saving and investing, but a financial plan encompasses much more than that; it includes planning for taxes, charitable giving, gifts to children and grandchildren… and it includes protecting your current assets and planning your estate.

If you’re just starting out on your own your goals may be simple: establish your long term plan, purchase a home, and start putting a little bit away each month toward retirement. If you’re older and more established in your career and finances, your goals are likely much more complex: college for your kids, long term care insurance for you and your spouse, helping to care for your elderly parents, and protecting your assets from estate taxes.

For those who are just beginning to think about your financial futures, this article by Wesley E. Watkis shares 6 basic steps to creating a financial plan, and is a good introduction to the world of planning, saving and investing. Watkis writes that the first step to financial planning is establishing goals; knowing what you want your money to do for you in the years ahead is essential before you map out your plan of attack.

Of course, if you’re a more established adult what you will need is personal guidance in turning those initial goals into an effective plan, and then help maintaining that plan and growing your wealth. For that you will most likely need to find a financial planner whose expertise and philosophy fits your family’s needs, but finding the perfect financial guide for your family is not always as easy as you would hope.

A large part of planning your finances includes planning your estate, and vice-versa; and our firm works closely with many excellent financial professionals. Please don’t hesitate to call our office where we can work with you to assess your needs, and put you in touch with a qualified financial professional who can help your family safely plan for the future.

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Many of our clients come to our firm not just for an estate plan, but as part of a larger goal to get serious about their finances and protect their assets and family. An estate plan is a HUGE step toward that goal, but it is only one step. Other steps include being proactive about your taxes, reviewing your investment portfolio, and creating a solid retirement plan.

Our firm can give you the very best estate planning and asset protection, but the other steps may require the help of a financial advisor. Each client’s situation is different, of course; you may already have a financial advisor and have taken these other steps (many of our clients are at our office on the advice of their financial advisor, in fact), but if you haven’t, finding an advisor you are comfortable with can be a challenge.

Because estate planning and financial planning go hand in hand, our firm has relationships with a number of top notch financial advisors, and we are happy to make the introductions. Having an estate planner and financial planner who are already acquainted can have many benefits. In addition to getting a referral from a source you already know and trust, you can be sure that any financial advisor we recommend has already been vetted, and all communication and collaboration between us for your benefit will be smooth and effortless. Don’t hesitate to call and take advantage of our experience.

If you still choose to search on your own, this article in The Wall Street Journal has suggestions on how to interview and choose the best financial advisor for your family. Either way, be aware of all the steps needed to reach your ultimate goal of financial security.

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Everyone knows that March and April are tax season, when everybody scrambles to get their taxes done, mailed off, and out of mind for the rest of the year; but according to this article from Reuters the taxes you pay in April can be significantly lower if you take the time to think about them now.

Author Linda Stern recommends mid-year as the best time to start thinking about your taxes because it gives you plenty of time to take advantage of various planning strategies and tax breaks, many of which she outlines in her article. Stern also points out that scheduling an appointment with your accountant in July—when accountants are not nearly as busy as March or April—means you’ll have more one-on-one time to strategize and discuss your financial situation.

Stern’s article is full of good advice and suggestions for saving on your taxes this year, but she forgets one important strategy: Creating your estate plan. Talking to a lawyer about your estate plan not only helps in understanding and organizing your finances, and protecting your assets for the future; but the money you spend in creating an estate plan can be tax deductable. Talk to your lawyer and accountant now about how you can protect—and save—your money in the future.

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The realm of personal finance is in the midst of being revolutionized. The crash on Wall Street has made many armchair investors mistrustful of professional financial advice, and many people are now taking the time to manage their own personal finances with the focus shifted from investing and earning to budgeting and saving. The problem is that after all the effort people put into learning how to spend and play the market from their laptops, many now don’t know how to budget and save responsibly.

This is where the revolution begins.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal has collected some of the best websites on the internet to help you keep track of and plan your finances. These online tools run the gamut of personal finance categories; from budgeting your household expenses to creating a financial plan to managing personal loans between friends and family. And these aren’t just educational resources, these are interactive tools to help you implement the processes you prefer—and many of these tools are free.

We hope our readers will find these resources helpful, but if you are one of those who would still like the advice and services of a professional financial planner and aren’t sure who to trust, please contact our office. We work with a number of reputable financial professionals, and would be happy to recommend one who would fit your family’s needs.

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Many people count on life insurance to pay their estate tax when they pass away (allowing their heirs to keep non-liquid assets such as real estate without having to sell immediately), and this has always been a fairly safe and reliable strategy—as long as you’re keeping track of your policy. Arden Dale’s article in the Wall Street Journal warns that current low interest rates are wreaking havoc on some insurance policies, leaving the owners without that safety net when the time comes to pay estate taxes.

“The policies are imploding because of low interest rates. An insurance plan issued years ago, when interest rates were higher, may no longer be earning the investment returns it needs to pay premiums as drafted. That shortfall leaves the owner on the hook for unexpected costs.

“If the worst happens and a policy collapses, its demise can even result in a big tax bill.”

If you aren’t sure of the status of your insurance policy talk to your financial planner or insurance representative to find out, then be sure to call your estate planning attorney to update your estate plan as needed to protect your heirs and family from the burden of unexpected estate taxes.

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E-mail, blog, iTunes, social networking, online photo albums… more and more of our lives and our businesses are moving online, but what happens to that online life when you pass away? Will your accounts languish, becoming an easy mark for hackers? Eventually be deleted? Perhaps they’ll be passed to your spouse after petitioning the court for access, but will your spouse know what to do with all of them?

The internet is no longer merely where you go for personal e-mail and the occasional online shopping trip—many businesses now exist almost exclusively online, as do reputations and friendships. What tech-savvy people need is a way to dispose of all of their online assets when they pass away, an online will, if you will. Now there is a company that offers this kind of service: Legacy Locker.

Legacy Locker describes itself as “a safe, secure repository for your digital property that lets you grant access to online assets for friends and loved ones in the event of death or disability.” It allows you to upload login information for all of your various online assets and assign those assets to different friends, loved ones, or trusted agents. Upon your death, Legacy Locker will send the ownership information, along with your own final letter or instructions, to the people you have “nominated”. This means you can assign assets to the appropriate people: your personal e-mail to your spouse, your iTunes account to your daughter, your business e-mail and blog to your business partner.

Of course there are drawbacks; the Legacy Locker needs to live as long as you do to be effective, and you’ll need assurances that it is safe and “hack-free”, but this is obviously an idea whose time has come, because our online lives are becoming as rich as our physical lives, and will soon (if not already) need just as much protection.

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There are many estate planning techniques available to a family that wants to protect assets to pass on to the children or grandchildren; options that extend far beyond a simple will, and even beyond a basic living trust. Two of these effective but lesser-known techniques are the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) and the Family Limited Partnership (FLP). Although both of these are trusted and respected protection strategies among estate planning attorneys, the White House is hoping (if Congress agrees) to place restrictions on the extent to which the GRAT and FLP can protect an estate from being taxed.

The proposed restrictions seem relatively minor, but could have a significant financial impact, as this article in the Wall Street Journal explains, including a proposed “minimum term of 10 years for GRATs,” allowing assets to then convert back to the grantor’s estate and be subject to estate tax; and the proposed restriction to FLPs which “aims to limit the ability of wealthy families to use partnership structures to minimize the valuation of assets for estate-tax purposes.”

What does this mean for our readers? If you have assets that you expect to pass on to your heirs come in and see us right away. We can plan now to limit the impact these restrictions would have on your family and your assets if and when they are passed into law.

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The Wall Street Journal says that family limited partnerships are finding renewed favor as an estate planning tool, thanks to recent tax-court decisions.

In an article entitled “Covering Your Assets” Journal writer Mark Klimek asserts that despite some IRS opposition, tax court rulings in recent years have endorsed the use of FLPs when they are used to preserve a family business for future generations.

“Setting up such a partnership could be especially useful right now for families with businesses,” according to the article. “The Obama budget calls for the estate tax to be restored next year at a rate of 45 percent for estates worth more than $3.5 million, or $7 million for couples. Income-tax increases for high earners are on the agenda as well.”

The article goes on to describe many of the dos and don’ts of FLPs, but of course each family’s situation is special, and you should consult an estate planning attorney before making decisions about any specific strategy.

In any case, the time to act is now. According to one expert quoted in the Journal article, “There’s a realization that any kind of estate planning you can do this year is good, because 2009 will probably end up being the most favorable year for taxes ever.”

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If you have a significant estate to leave to your heirs—but you are still alive and well—to whom does that significant estate belong, you or them? This seem a silly question, of course the property belongs to you, but many adult children have come to count on the property their parents will leave them, and—rightly or wrongly—to feel a sense of ownership over it. As potential beneficiaries, do your heirs have the right to be informed ahead of time of your plans for your own estate?

David Cay Johnston, in his article Learning to Share, suggests that although parents have no responsibility to inform their children of their plans, not talking to your kids about your estate plan is a surefire way to foster hurt feelings and interfamily fights after you pass away. Sharing your plans for your wealth may not always be easy, but even the most ardent supporters of the privacy of the would-be decedent will have to agree with the logic of Johnston’s argument.

Our office understands that every family and situation will be different, and some parents will have good reasons for keeping their plans under wraps. But in many circumstances, whether your intention with your estate plan is to ease the way for your heirs or merely to ensure that your wishes are carried out to the letter, open communication with your children or potential heirs is the best way to support the accomplishment of those goals.

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