Planned Giving and Inheritance Planning

After spending your life acquiring wealth you need to have a plan in place for what you are going to do with that money after you die. This is why you need to take advantage of the planned giving and inheritance planning services that your financial planner can offer to you.

One of the more complex things that you are going to have to deal with when it comes to your financial planning is deciding what you are going to do with your money after you die. It goes without saying that you need to have a will otherwise the decision about what will happen to your money will be made by the courts. There are a lot of things that you are going to have to think about when you are doing your inheritance planning so it is usually a good idea to talk to an expert.

One of the things that you are going to have to think about is how much you are going to leave to your children. This can get very complex since you want to make sure that you leave them enough money. On the other hand you don't want to leave them too much otherwise it tends to lead to them not doing anything with their lives. You also have to address issues like should you leave them all the same amount? Things get more complicated if you have minor children since you will need to leave money for their care.

The other big issue that you are going to have to deal with when it comes to inheritance planning is that the taxes on inherited money are huge. This is why most people put their money in trust and gift it to their children before they die rather than leaving it to them as an inheritance. This will save a huge amount of taxes and ensure that your children get the maximum that they can. Setting these trusts up can be complicated so you will need the help of a financial planner in order to do it.

Most people will leave at least part of their money to charity. One option that you have is to simply leave it is a lump sum when you die. However in order to allow the charity to get the most out of your donation you do have the option of doing what is called planned giving. This is where you will put the money that you intend to donate into a number of financial instruments before you die allowing the charity to receive the interest off of it. After your death the full value of the principal will transfer to the charity. Doing this will allow you to donate to charity while you are still alive without actually having to give up any money until after your death.