Estate planning—or what this article from Investors Insight likes to call “legacy planning” —can help you achieve all of these goals. The article outlines four goals an estate plan can help you achieve. In our firm, we add a fifth:  Long Term Care Planning.  You and our firm can work together to make your plan more than merely a tax savings tool, by addressing the following:

1. Financial Security
2. Estate Care and Management
3. Protecting your Estate
4. Minimizing the Tax Burden and Probate Expense, and
5. Long Term Care Planning

Tax planning is sometimes an important part of your estate planning process, but tax laws have a tendency to change, and with a new estate tax law expected in 2009 or 2010 it is essential to remember your other goals as well when you plan your estate.

For many of our clients, planning to help fund the cost of Long Term Care without depleting the estate is a primary goal; if these costs are not considered, they can drain the estate you leave to your spouse or children.  Our firm may be able to help minimize the impact of these costs by creating an estate plan that coordinates your wishes with available government long term care benefits.  Pre-planning is the best approach.