Turning Your Estate Plan Into a Family Legacy
For some, the most important part of estate planning is keeping your assets out of probate court so that your beneficiaries don’t have to wait to get their inheritance (not to mention having the courts take their share). However, when you plan for the future of your estate, you may also decide that you want to create a legacy to leave behind for future generations. Here are a couple of ways to make that happen.
- Leave a donation to a favorite charity – One great way to leave a legacy for your family is to help out people in need. This shows your family what is important to you and provides an example of using wealth for philanthropy rather than solely selfish gain.
- Create new family heirlooms – Bequeath some of your most prized possessions to specific family members and provide a written or recorded video reason that you feel the item should become a family heirloom. Generations from now, your family may still be passing on those items along with your story to their children.
San Diego’s Estate Planning Experts
When you want more than a run of the mill estate plan in southern California, you want the help of our expert attorneys. Call Petrov Law Firm today at 619.344.0360 to get in touch with a professional lawyer who can help you create a lasting legacy for your family. We have convenient locations in San Diego, North County, and Chula Vista, so call today to get your estate plan started!
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Building a Legacy with Your Estate Plan
Estate planning is about more than leaving money to your heirs. This is an opportunity to create or pass on a real family legacy. Here are a few ways to ensure that your name will live on long after you are gone.
- Trusts – You can create trusts that are dispensed when certain conditions are met. For example, you can create an education trust so that your grand kids can attend the university of their choice. You can even create trusts that provide incentives to reach goals, such as a trust that becomes available to your niece when she opens the new business she has been talking about venturing into. Knowing that the capital is there to get the business off the ground may be just what she needs to decide to give it a try.
- Letters and Old Photographs – While many modern personal documents and photos all exist in the cloud and are easy to pass on, your family may still have a treasure trove of old letters and printed photos. From pictures of your parents and grandparents to love letters that passed between relatives back in the 19th century, you can leave a wealth of family history to the next generation.
- Video and Audio Files – Your knowledge and experience can prove beneficial to future generations. But what if you are worried that the modern generation won’t care about your handwritten or typed letters? Why not try creating digital recordings of your advice or, better yet, video recordings. These can be preserved for years to come, allowing generations of the family to benefit and to see your face and hear your voice even if they never got to meet you in person.
Let Us Help You Establish Your Family Legacy
At Petrov Law Firm, we specialize in estate planning and can help you to leave behind a legacy for future generations. To learn more, contact us today at 619-344-0360. We look forward to helping you ensure that your future is well taken care of.
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Estate Planning for Married Couples
If you and your mate are planning for the future, you have some options that are unique to couples and that may offer some tax benefits to the survivor. Here are a few things you should know about estate planning for married couples.
- You can use a Survivor’s Trust if you want to leave everything to your mate. This is the simplest way to leave your estate to a spouse. However, if your surviving mate remarries, this does leave things open for the estate to be passed to the new mate and his or her children rather than yours.
- A Marital Disclaimer Trust gives the surviving mate the option to use a Bypass Trust. However, the help of an attorney is recommended so that the survivor exercises this option at the most financially sound time.
- For very large estates, you may need an A/B Trust to act as a tax shelter. However, with the estate tax only applying to massive estates, this is no longer a frequently used option.
- If you have a blended family or a smaller estate, you may benefit from a Survivor’s Trust with a QTIP (qualified terminable interest property) plan. You maximize the distribution of assets to the surviving spouse while still taking advantage of the best deductions for a married couple.
Learn More About Estate Planning for Married Couples in California
Petrov Law Firm has been helping married couples to plan for the future since 2014, and we are proud to specialize in California estate planning. To get started on your future plans, call our California estate planning attorneys at 619-344-0360 today!
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