Estate Tax Planning

 Is your joint estate large enough to be subject to the federal Estate Tax?  If you have a fairly large estate, then you should consider taking some additional steps to protect your heirs from this tax.  Good estate tax planning can save your heirs thousands of dollars in taxes on your passing.

There are a number of ways to minimize or eliminate altogether the estate tax. Many of them involve some form of lifetime giving, either outright or in trust. Some of these gifts are so easy that you won’t need to feel depleted or impoverished at all as a result. These gifts can be leveraged to result in even more savings through the use of gifts to churches, charities, foundations, insurance and other entities.

Another approach is to freeze or fractionalize the value and ownership of some of your assets so that the taxable amount is not artificially inflated by the whims of 
market forces.

Finally, under certain circumstances the IRS will allow you to pay the estate tax over 15 years at very low interest rates and for the first four years you can pay interest only. This payment plan is a big improvement over the usual all cash paid nine months after death. We will explain all of your options to you and help you to pick one that best suits your estate and your family.