Protect Your Wealth and Legacy
By establishing your estate plan, you can be assured that your wishes will be carried out exactly how you like. Your estate plan will provide peace of mind knowing your loved ones will be cared for, without placing additional burden on your family. Our estate planning process includes:
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Collaboration with your attorney and accountant to build and implement your estate plan
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Guidance on wills, trusts, and powers of attorney to protect your wishes
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Strategies to transfer wealth, values, and legacy across generations
- Resources and support to prepare future generations for responsible wealth stewardship
The Right Documents
You'd be surprised how many families don't have the right documents in place, updated, and accessible to guide their loved ones and prevent years-long legal issues if something were to happen to them.
We see this as a critical step to a comprehensive plan and work with our clients to review and implement estate planning in their first year with us.
From there, we set a plan to regularly evaluate and update the plan based on your evolving needs as well as legal changes. Don't get caught with an outdated plan, let's talk about how your financial plan can integrate with your estate plan today.
Trusts to Protect Your Assets
Our team is deeply experienced in several different types of estate trusts, all designed to protect your assets from probate and execute the transfer of your wealth according to your wishes. From irrevocable trust options like ILITs to GRATs, SLATS, and QPRTs, we're ready to get creative to make sure as much as what you've earned stays with your loved ones.
We’re skilled in the intricacies of each type of trust and can confidently recommend the right fit for you. If your advisor hasn't talked to you about the unique types of trusts that are relevant to your situation, we should talk.
Tax Considerations & Wealth Transfer
An ideal estate plan is designed to maximize wealth transfer to the next generation while minimizing tax burden. We’ll offer strategies throughout your wealth-building years to manage your taxable estate for optimal outcomes.
Estate Flowcharts
Estate plans can get complex, especially at higher net worths, across multiple generations, or incorporating complex business or equity interests.
We're happy to work with you, your attorney, and any other professional partners to capture a flowchart of your wishes. You'd be surprised how capturing a simple visual can help give you peace of mind everything is taken care of.
A Lasting Legacy
With the right tools and documents in place, we can then help you move onto what really matters: building a legacy for your loved ones.
We go above and beyond to involve relevant family members so they understand what's in place and what your wishes are.
Estate Planning
A Creative & Generous Approach With a Significant Tax Impact
Our client, a top executive during his career, chose a slower pace of life in retirement by delegating a portion of his wealth toward the purchase of a working ranch. He desired to eventually transition the value of the ranch out of his estate, thus avoiding the tax burden.
His goal was to shift ownership to a ranch staff member who didn’t have adequate liquid assets to purchase the property outright.
Without strategic planning, our client would’ve faced a significant estate tax burden if he retained ownership, potentially forcing the sale of the ranch or diminishing its value for the next owner.
We recommended a combination of Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) and conservation easements, with the staff member as the beneficiary. This strategy lowered the overall value of the property and allowed the staffer to become the owner of the ranch without paying upfront.
Our client significantly reduced his estate tax liability, and the staffer eventually took ownership without incurring taxes on the transfer.
Not Ready to Commit? No Problem.
We know this is a big decision. Download our New Client Guide to learn more about what it's like to be a Plancorp client before you speak with an advisor. From our integrated services to a breakdown of our trusted fee-only model, we're an open book.
