There are a number of different factors to consider when you are engaged in inheritance planning, and one of them would be details specific to the people who comprise your inheritance list.
It is not always as simple as handing over a lump sum bequest directly, because for one thing there can be estate tax implications that must be addressed. Some heirs may not be ready to handle a large sum of money, and for these individuals you may want to include stipulations, perhaps through the creation of an incentive trust.
Asset protection is something else you may want to take into account, and this can be especially important for people such as physicians who are especially vulnerable to lawsuits. One course of action that you could choose to take in an effort to protect assets would be to create a generation-skipping trust.
As the name suggests, you skip a generation when you name a beneficiary, making your grandchildren the beneficiaries. Your children can however benefit from assets that are placed in the trust, receiving distributions of income and utilizing property that is held in the trust. Because they don’t legally own the resources in the trust they cannot be targeted by claimants against the children.
Generation-skipping trusts can be a very useful asset protection tool, and they provide tax advantages as well. To explore this and other options you may want to take action right now and arrange for a consultation with a licensed, experienced, and savvy Indianapolis estate planning attorney.
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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