Serving Families Throughout Orange County & Irvine
Securing your family’s financial future preserves your legacy of hard work and dedication — and planning for your estate’s potential tax needs is a vital part of safeguarding that financial future. This is where a skilled Orange County estate tax planning attorney from OC Wills & Trust Attorneys comes in.
Without future-focused estate planning, a significant portion of your accumulated assets may be lost to federal and state taxes. Fortunately, an estate planning lawyer can develop a customized set of strategies that help ensure your legacy remains intact for generations.
Take a closer look at some of the key ways an experienced estate tax planning lawyer from our team can help protect your family’s future.
Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs)
A family limited partnership (FLP) is a strategic financial tool to help you and your family preserve your wealth and extend your legacy. When you form an FLP, you benefit from estate and gift tax savings and maintain control over the transfer of all assets.
It is a smart structure that allows you to pass monetary gifts to your children. Transferring assets this way will decrease the taxable valuation of your estate and reduce your tax burden. This is because FLPs can use the annual gift tax exclusion, which allows you to gift funds to your heirs without incurring accrued tax burden.
With an FLP, you can also transfer further wealth to your family using marketability discounts. Due to the limited marketability of your partnership, you can apply this discount to create an even stronger wealth transfer.
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
Your family’s legacy begins with your home. A qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) allows you to freeze the value of your eligible real estate property for estate tax purposes.
With the QPRT strategy, you can still live in the residence and continue to operate as a living estate. This methodology secures your precious family home while reducing the taxable value of the property.
Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
When your family receives life insurance proceeds, the earnings do not count toward income tax, but your family could be required to pay federal estate taxes on that money.
An irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) separates your life insurance policy from your taxable estate. In this way, the money from the insurance payout is liquid and able to be used for debts. An ILIT also makes your life insurance policy more flexible in terms of assigning beneficiaries to it, as these beneficiaries do not have to be tied to your estate.
Digital Assets Management
Are you thinking about your non-physical assets when planning your estate? In today’s world, digital assets can be just as valuable and enduring as their physical counterparts. It is important to have a viable strategy to manage, disperse, or gain from these assets.
While digital assets may include family heirlooms like digitized photos or home videos, this barrier of protection would also govern higher assets like cryptocurrency accounts, NFTs, lucrative digital accounts or websites, air miles, and other financially relevant assets.
You can lay out exactly how these accounts or assets will transfer and to whom. You will want to ensure a seamless transition of both tangible and digital assets to preserve the full scope of everything you have created, invested in, or acquired.
Charitable Giving Strategies
What causes are important to you? Through strategic charitable giving, you can give back to those causes without giving everything away. You might consider starting a charitable trust or opening a non-profit foundation.
Depending on the tax structure chosen for the organization, you could trim your tax burden while having an impact on an important group or cause. Craft a charitability plan that aligns with your values and your vision for the future.
Guardianship for Dependents
Estate planning is not just about money. The future of your family depends on the decisions you make now, including considerations about the care of any minors in your family.
You can ensure guardianship and financial security for all of the children in your family by designating caretakers for any dependents. In the event of an unforeseen circumstance, you want to know that the people who need you now will be taken care of in the future.
As a part of your larger estate plan, you can select responsible individuals to maintain the care of your children or in-care dependents. This will provide peace of mind for you and the other members of your family.
With help from a qualified attorney, you can ensure that your loved ones are cared for and covered — financially and functionally. No matter what happens, you want your most important assets — the people you love — to be cared for.
Contact an Orange County Estate Tax Planning Attorney Today
At OC Wills & Trust Attorneys, we help families like yours make informed, strategic decisions about their assets and futures. Our experienced team can help you create a comprehensive plan for your estate that is aligned with your goals and needs. Contact us to schedule a consultation with a seasoned estate tax planning lawyer today.
