Estate planning for high net worth families involves responding to some specific challenges. The first thing to brace yourself for is the federal estate tax.
This tax could consume a significant percentage of your legacy if you don’t take the appropriate steps. And in reality over a number of generations the federal death levy could conceivably consume the vast majority of the assets that you leave behind over time.
If the resources are significant enough and succeeding generations of your family were to be successful the family legacy could continually exceed the estate tax exclusion and be exposed to the estate tax generation after generation.
Clearly, allowing the tax man to consume your hard-earned resources piece by piece is not acceptable.
The good news is that estate planning attorneys who have experience assisting high net worth families can indeed guide you toward avenues that provide tax efficiency. You do have to be prepared to update your plan along the way as your family dynamic changes, relevant laws change and your financial situation continues to improve.
Asset protection is another factor to take into consideration. Once you have accumulated wealth you certainly want to do everything that it takes to preserve it, and as we all know we live in a rather litigious society.
Success comes with certain rewards, but it also comes with a good bit of risk so you have to be proactive about tax planning and asset protection while being ready, willing and able to make ongoing adjustments as they become necessary.
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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