Retirement is about more than just paying your bills.
Estate planning is an absolute must. I don’t care how much money you have or don’t have.
Take the case of the recently deceased actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. He died of a drug overdose this year and, although he wasn’t retired at the time, the financial disaster he set up by not consulting a qualified person to help his heirs in the event of his death will cost his partner $12 million in estate taxes.
Twelve million dollars!
He didn’t want his kids to become “trust fund kids,” so he left virtually his entire estate to his longtime partner, who he never married.
This huge and blatant mistake opened him up to the maximum estate tax the IRS can levy.
If all he did was marry his partner, there would have been almost no tax liability at all.
There are so many options available to keep what you earn in your family, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to set up.
So, you don’t want your kids to be trust fund bums, then what about their educations? Educations trusts.
How about healthcare? Set aside money for catastrophic healthcare issues.
Really simple steps can keep your estate out of probate, and that alone can be a huge savings.
The point is this. Doing nothing simply puts your money in the pockets of the bloodsuckers in Washington. And believe me, having gone through this process, they don’t come to you and say, oh, your father really messed up, let us help.
They are not about a reasonable settlement. Their goal is to take it all! Take the extra step and use the existing laws to legally beat the IRS at its own game. Your goal should be to keep it all for your heirs and starve Washington.
Look at your estate planning, now.