Asset Protection and Estate Planning for All Ages
A review of asset protection and estate planning devised to customize your individual estate needs by letting you understand you legal rights, initiatives and obligations first.
Denver, CO (PRWEB) March 10, 2006
Ronald E. Hudkins, U. S. Army, SFC, Military Police Corps. (Retired) and President of American Industry Maintenance (AIM), LLC at AssetProtectNow. com Addresses the importance of financial planning and securing your wealth building efforts.
If you think you know where you will be tomorrow, perhaps you should rethink the horrific consequences of that reasoning. We all die. Be it the result of age related natural causes or at the hand of some unforeseen disaster, your time is coming and fate most certainly will deal its hand.
The sad reality is that somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of Americans do not even leave a Simple Will. When it comes to a complete estate plan nearly 98% of use fail to reach all the legal requirements needed for our asset protection efforts to stand up in court.
While a simple will may sufficiently serve the estate planning needs of many people, estate planning is highly complex. You should always meet with a qualified legal advisor to be sure the estate plan you have in mind is in reality, consistent with your objectives.
When you approach an interview, it is with the intent to obtain perhaps the job of your dreams. You put your best foot forward. You go into the interview with the intention to be the best choice decision that company ever made. You accomplish every goal and learn every detail and requirement it takes to be promoted. You do what it takes to increase your worthiness, importance and retention. You do this for the sake of wealth building and future financial security.
The same priorities must be accomplished in your personal estate planning needs. When you take the time to prepare the legal documentation necessary to protect your assets and heirs, you are the one who stipulates how your property is distributed and who raises your minor children when you are gone. If you die intestate (without estate planning), the probate court intervenes and a judge (tasked to interpret the black and white letter of the law) decides how your assets are divided. And if you are a single parent of minor children, that same judge will decide with whom your children will live.
No one says that the legal process is not complex and ever changing. With wills alone there is the simple will, living will, testamentary trust will, pour-over will, last will and testament, etc. There are various trusts, proxy’s, vulnerable assets, long term health care initiatives, taxes, inheritance or probate advances, etc. to be considered essential to financial security and estate planning.
A point to acknowledge is you must not only recognize that estate planning although complex is also an ever changing (on-going) process. It requires periodic reviews based upon your changing goals and financial complexities. Because there are so many things relative to proper estate planning, it often involves the coordinated effort between qualified legal, tax, insurance and financial professionals.
Do not confuse the drafting of legal documentation with the development of an estate plan. You also must realize it is important to have everything accessible in one location.
Once you have your will, durable power of attorney, health care proxy and other legal documentation Additionally, you need other key data. This information includes at a minimum, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, , health insurance, Logon/passwords for your computer, original marriage certificate, divorce decrees, military discharge paperwork, life insurance information, deeds and appraisals, beneficiary designation forms, auto and home insurance policies, a listing of important contacts with address and phone numbers, bank and safety deposit box locations, lawyer, doctor, accountant and other professional points of contact.
You need to decide how your beneficiaries will find your essential documents. Who will have access to these documents and when that access is permissible. You should consider storing this vital documentation securely in a place other than your home.
Asset protection and estate planning is a process of understanding your legal initiatives, alternatives and obligations. It is a process of accomplishing the needed tasks to protect your most important information that guides and protects your heirs. It is a process that needs acted upon immediately and demands periodic review and initiation of needed revisions.
About Ronald E. Hudkins
Ronald Hudkins is a retired military enlisted member that was assigned as a staff researcher. He was responsible to compile, write or conduct; reports, studies, statistics, reviews, plans, inspections, lessons and numerous other tasks deemed essential to operational efforts. His actions allowed superior, peer and subordinate commands, their designated leaders and staffs make vital and logical decisions. The ability to identify, analyze and propose solutions is a trait still exercised. For additional asset protection and estate planning needs he suggests the web site of Informed Eldercare Decisions, Inc.: bob@elderlifeplanning. com Or his web site: http://www. AssetProtectNow. com (http://www. AssetProtectNow. com).
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