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Giving More of What You Save
As part of your estate planning strategy, capital preservation will help you maximize the value of the assets you want to pass on to the next generation. It can also help minimize the amount of taxes you – or they – pay on those assets.Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and qualified retirement plans – 401(k)s, profit-sharing plans, etc. – as well as savings accounts, certificates of deposit and investments are efficient for building your wealth. However, when you pass away, what’s in these accounts may be subject to income tax when the funds are distributed to your beneficiaries. Additionally, the federal government requires that a minimum distribution be taken from IRAs and most qualified retirement plans each year, whether you need the money or not, beginning at age 72.
Your financial representative can offer a variety of solutions to help maximize the inheritance you leave by transferring capital from one asset to another, creating a favorable after-tax outcome. This could include using the required minimum distribution to fund a life insurance policy – which generally passes tax-free to beneficiaries – to help preserve the legacy you intend for your loved ones to enjoy.
Protecting a Lifetime of Savings
You’ve worked a lifetime to save enough to live comfortably during retirement and leave a legacy for your family and perhaps your favorite charity. All of your assets in which you have an interest, with a few exceptions, are included in your estate for estate tax purposes.Estate taxes and other transfer costs – including debts, additional taxes, final expenses and administrative fees – generally must be paid before the balance of the estate is distributed to your heirs. These taxes and expenses can take a big bite out of the assets you’ve accumulated.
Wealth preservation strategies can help reduce this financial burden and protect more of what you’ve worked so hard to save during your lifetime. Your financial representative the information and tools needed to create an estate plan that may be right for you.
Together, you can explore the option of using life insurance proceeds to help provide the liquidity needed to pay administrative costs and estate taxes in a timely manner so your loved ones do not need to sell estate assets to raise the necessary cash to pay the tax bill.
Charitable Giving
We all want to leave the world a little better than we found it. Charitable giving has been on the rise in the United States since the 1970s according to an analysis by Giving USA Foundation. Increasingly business owners and individuals alike want to make their community a better place to work and live while advancing a charitable cause, reducing income and estate taxes, and increasing cash flow.Your financial representative can help you explore ways to make charitable contributions while helping to maximize your tax deductions. Public charities and foundations are among popular options. We can also help identify the options for what to give, including: cash; publicly traded securities; real estate; and tangible and intangible assets.
There are also a wide range of choices for how to give, including an outright gift of cash or property during life; testamentary gift (upon death); gift annuity (contract between donor and charity); pooled income fund where the charity creates and pays income into a trust fund that is paid to the charity when the last owner passes away; and a charitable trust created by the donor with either the trust income or the remainder interest goes to the charity.
