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Estate Planning Archives | Wealthspire Advisors

Sep 29 2020
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SLATs

Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs): FAQs

By Blog
What is a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)? It is a trust that you (the grantor) set up for the benefit of your spouse and your descendants. You would make a gift to the SLAT, using some of your federal lifetime gift exemption (currently $11.58M in 2020) to shield that gift from gift tax. While you give up all your rights and control over the gifted assets, your spouse will have access to the gifted assets as beneficiary of the SLAT. When does it make sense to have a SLAT? You should consider creating a SLAT if you have a…
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Jun 12 2020
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executors trustees guardians

Choosing Executors, Trustees, and Guardians for Your Estate Plan

By Guides & Whitepapers
Who would you trust to take care of your children if something happened to you? Who would you trust to manage their finances? Who in your life would be capable of administering your estate if you pass away? For some fortunate people, the answers to these questions are clear. For many others, however, answering these questions is far from easy. When clients are crafting or revising their estate plans, there are a lot of questions to answer and a lot of decisions to make. As a starting point, we suggest that clients start the planning process by considering the people…
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May 07 2020
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mortgage invest

Estate Planning 101

By Guides & Whitepapers
The purpose of this white paper is to provide you with an overview of estate planning basics. Establishing or revising an estate plan first and foremost involves making a series of decisions, some of which can be daunting. We hope the information below serves as a useful guide during this process. What is an estate plan and why do I need one? Contrary to popular belief, estate planning typically involves more than just signing a Will. It generally involves two sets of considerations: lifetime planning and testamentary planning. Lifetime planning may involve choosing decision-makers to make health or financial decisions…
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Apr 19 2020
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planning opportunities

Planning Strategies to Consider in a Volatile Environment

By and Blog
While the Coronavirus pandemic has brought its share of fear and anxiety, it also brings some favorable financial planning opportunities that can be of significant benefit for you and your family. Below are some opportunities to consider. 1. Harvesting Capital Losses: An approximate 20% decline in equity markets from the early year high, along with volatility in sectors of fixed income markets have caused security values to decline.  As we periodically rebalance portfolios, in taxable accounts we look to realize capital losses and replace sold positions with similar, but not identical, securities to maintain desired exposures. When we “harvest” capital…
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Apr 08 2020
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charitable remainder trust

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs)

By Guides & Whitepapers
What is a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT)? It is a trust where non-charitable beneficiaries (usually the grantor and grantor’s spouse) receive payments at least annually during their lives or for a number of years, and a charity receives the trust assets remaining at the end of the trust term. A charitable trust is also referred to as a “split interest trust”. This is because the beneficial interests in the trust are “split” between the initial non-charitable beneficiaries and the charitable beneficiaries that receive what remains at the end of the trust term. We will refer to the initial non-charitable beneficiaries…
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Mar 11 2020
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intra-family loans

Intra-Family Loans

By Guides & Whitepapers
One of the most flexible and powerful gifting techniques is to loan money to other family members, especially in a period of low interest rates. The reason intra-family loans work is simple: on average, the person receiving the loan should be able to invest the money received in a way that produces a rate of return greater than the interest rate on the loan. Thus, when the borrower returns the loaned money at the end of the loan’s term, he will be able to keep this excess return. Because the money was loaned, and not gifted, this excess is tax-free,…
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Feb 26 2020
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creating trust

What to Consider When Creating a Trust

By and Blog, Guides & Whitepapers
You’ve decided to create and fund a trust as part of your overall estate plan. Now, you will need to make decisions that impact who controls the trust, how and when beneficiaries receive trust distributions, and how the trust is taxed. When creating a trust, here are the basic questions you will need to answer: Who are the beneficiaries? A trust can be for a single beneficiary or for multiple beneficiaries (often called a “pot trust”). Sometimes, a pot trust is created for a period of time, and then splits into separate shares at a later date. E.g., mom creates…
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