Other Professionals on Your Team
There are a few different professionals you may want to hire that can assist you with your personal estate planning needs. While some families may require more, most will want to consider three professionals for your estate planning team: an accountant, a financial advisor, and an estate planning attorney.
These professionals work together to help clients figure out an estate plan that will provide security to your family without unnecessary taxes.
In the previous post, I discussed several roles you will want to fill when creating your estate planthat will be performed by your family members – roles such as executor, trustee, guardian to your minor children, and both healthcare and financial agents. If you need a refresher on what these roles do, you can read that post here or watch this video.
Accountant
Did you know that choices you make during your estate plan could significantly impact the taxes your family will be required to pay? The accountant helps the team by focusing on the tax consequences of estate planning decisions — both now and in the future.
An accountant can help identify when a decision might create an unexpected tax burden. Some common scenarios where these questions arise include leaving a retirement account to beneficiary or adding someone else to the deed on your home before you pass away.
In addition, your accountant should be familiar with your tax return. This knowledge can help when it comes time to figure out what property and financial accounts you have and what those assets are worth.
Financial Advisor
A financial advisor advises you on different strategies to help grow your wealth. This service is helpful to ensure you have enough money during retirement and potentially something leftover for your kids to inherit. They may offer strategies you haven’t considered before or provide guidance on investment decision-making.
Financial advisors will also review your portfolio and identify if you can add a beneficiary to the account. If a beneficiary can be added to the account, this account may not be included in your probate estate — which is (usually) a good thing!
A financial advisor can provide assistance with filling out the required paperwork and working with your attorney to make sure there won’t be unexpected outcomes when you add a beneficiary to your accounts.
Please be aware that neither financial advisors nor accountants can give you legal advice. They can only give you advice within their realms of expertise. In addition, nothing in this article should be considered tax, financial, or legal advice. Please consult with a professional if you have a question about your specific situation.
Estate Planning Attorney
The third professional role is the estate planning attorney — someone who has a law degree and is licensed to practice law in your state. That would be me if you’re in Illinois or Wisconsin.
If you have any attorney friends, you know that we can be kind of wordy and ask a lot of questions! Asking a million questions is a good thing and a quality you should look for when searching for an estate planning attorney. We do this because we try to think through all the different possibilities and scenarios that could happen if you were to die or lose your faculties at any point between today or the day you turn 105.
Your estate planning attorney should sit down with you and make sure they understand your family, what kind of property you own, and what you want to happen when you die or can no longer take care of yourself. What are your priorities for your family and your assets? Who do you trust to help when you cannot do it yourself?
The best estate planning attorneys will give you several recommendations and options so you can determine what fits your individual circumstances. Attorneys will then create the documents you will need so that what you want to happen can happen!
If you do not have the correct documents in place, everything you own will get distributed according to the government’s plan. A guardian for your minor children will be selected by the judge. While sometimes this aligns with what you want anyway, it is often not the best situation and will cause more burdens for your family. I talk in depth about this here.
Your Team of Professionals
Your estate planning attorney will work together with your accountant and financial advisor to ensure that the estate plan in place fits with the strategies recommended by the other two professionals.
Sometimes there may be disagreements between your professionals as they each approach your situation with a slightly different focus; however, if you have a good team, that team will work together and with you to figure out your options. They will explain the pros and cons of the different possible solutions and how each one will impact you today or in the future.
These professional advisors might also be able to fill in some of the other roles needed if you do not have family or friends that are a good fit for your goals. For example, you could hire an attorney to act as executor so they can help your family through the probate process. You could also hire your financial advisor to act as a private (or corporate) trustee to manage your trust. This is not mandatory, though, and not all professionals offer these services.
One last thing to remember — if you don’t have all of these professionals in place, don’t worry and don’t rush. Ask for recommendations from friends. Trust your gut when making a decision. Take your time finding people you can trust and who are a good fit for you and your family.
I hope you found this helpful! While it is important to know and understand this information, a lot of the details really come down to your personal and individual circumstances. If you have ANY questions, please reach out! Send me an email or drop a comment here!
Until Next time!
Jayme
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