Minute Estate Planner Podcast

If you don’t think you can learn something useful about estate planning in one minute, think again. Estate Planning Attorney Jesse Bifulco presents the Minute Planner Series.

What is Structure?

In sixty seconds, learn what structure in estate planning is. Learn why you should have structure in your estate plan. Learn why tax planning is only a part of a well formed estate plan.

Jesse Bifulco, Attorney, Camden Maine

Transcript

So you have a will or trust from 2005 that guaranteed you wouldn’t pay estate taxes. Well guess what, its 2019, and even without that old will or trust, chances are you wouldn’t owe estate taxes anyway. For 99% of people that’s the truth.
But the old documents could be worse. The old will or trust may lack structure.
What’s structure? Let’s say you want some money set aside for the children of your first marriage, so that if you should die, their stepmom doesn’t right them out. Let’s also say that your son can’t manage money, and you want to make sure that someone else is helping him out. And as for your daughter, her marriage is shaky, even though she doesn’t see it yet, and you don’t want your future ex son-in-law to end up with her inheritance. Or you want to make sure that the family camp stays in the family.
Those are all examples of planning goals that can be accomplished with “structure”.
Without necessary structure, the tax savings you were so concerned about could all be enjoyed by the wrong person
or the gift meant to help your beneficiaries could end up doing them harm.
This is Minute Estate Planner, with attorney Jesse Bifulco