Estate Planning for Your Parents and Elderly Clients

Getting your parents and elderly clients to create or update estate plans can be difficult. However, having an updated plan will enable elderly individuals to have control over their asset distributions, avoid court intervention and unnecessary administrative costs, and minimize taxes. Eleven estate planning steps elderly individuals should consider following are below:

1. Execute proper documents, including a will, power of attorney, health care power of attorney, living will, and revocable living trust
2. Fund the revocable living trust
3. Create an estate plan that is flexible when it comes to tax purposes
4. Consider creating a sub-trust, or QTIP trust, for control purposes
5. Carefully select those who will fill fiduciary positions
6. Determine how fiduciaries will determine incapacity
7. Decide how and where final days will be spent
8. Create a plan for any vacation homes or property
9. Name recipients of personal property
10. Create a summary of retirement plans, insurance policies, bank and investments accounts, and real estate
11. Before conducting any planning, consult a professional

For more information on estate planning for elderly clients, see Randy Gardner, J.D., LL.M, CPA, CFP; Leslie Daff, J.D.; and Julie Welch, CPA, CFP, Your Parents’ Estate Plan, Journal of Financial Planning (October 2011).

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.