The Estate Planning Team

Estate planning isn't the sole province of lawyers or financial advisors or accountants or any one person. To create a solid estate plan, you need advice from people with training in the law, finance, taxes, and insurance, to name a few. For example, a lawyer can set up a trust, but a trust is just an empty basket into which you put things. Those things are financial assets. To know what things to put into the basket, you need help from financial planners (or you need to feel comfortable that you can do it yourself). What you put in the basket might have tax consequences, either now or when you die, which is why you might need an accountant or tax professional. You might also decide to make the trust the beneficiary of a life insurance policy, so you would need to talk to an insurance specialist. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can do it all yourself or even with the help of one or two advisors. If one of your advisors tells you he or she can do it all, maybe it's time for a new advisor.