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Profit from an Esta te Plan

estate plan? Who are your heirs, or beneficiaries? What assets will you leave?

Where can you go to get help with your estate plan? When should your assets
be passed? How can you accomplish your estate planning goals?) This is very
important, which is why I am mentioning this again. Once you defi ne your
goals and objectives, you are ready to sit down and draw up a detailed design
or blueprint of your fi nancial position.

Five Estate Planning Steps

There are the five basic, and successive, steps necessary to create and main-
tain your estate plan:

1. Document . You and your fi nancial professional(s) assemble all the perti-
nent facts about your material resources and assets. In addition, look at

the personal and financial habits and circumstances of family members
or potential heirs. Take into account both past and potential behavior,
family changes (marriage, births, divorce, deaths, etc.), fi nancial status
and responsibility as objectively as possible.

2. Analyze . Analyze these facts and compare them against your goals and
objectives.

3. Formulate . Formulate several potential plans, then play devil’s advo-
cate and test them. Select the one that will help you reach your estate
planning goals.

4. Implement . No plan can be successful unless it is implemented.

5. Review and revise . Perform periodic reviews. Revise the estate plan
every three to five years, on average, or more or less frequently as your

life changes.

Now that you have consulted with a professional and established, imple-
mented, and funded your estate plan, make sure it is kept current with your
changing life situation and reviewed frequently. Equally as important, make
sure others know that you have a plan in place. If you have a medical directive
or living will as part of your Revocable Living Trust, but no one brings it to
the attention of your doctors, it will not do you any good. Likewise, funeral
or internment instructions that are not found until after the service were
wasted efforts. Keep a copy of the trust document with your estate planning
professional, and put the original in a secure place (i.e., a deposit box, vault or
fi reproof fi le cabinet). Give copies of your medical directive to your primary

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