Elder law is an umbrella term for a number of legal services that can help you pass your assets to your loved ones instead of the government. If you know you have accumulated enough wealth for your retirement, you need strategies to ensure you can pass the rest of your wealth and assets onto your heirs. The three main options you have are as follows:
Name a younger beneficiary
If you have children and grandchildren, you can use a rollover IRA during your retirement which will pass your wealth on to your younger beneficiaries. If you do not plan for this, your living spouse will get all proceeds of your Will.
Consider a family trust
People incorrectly assume that family trusts are only for wealthy people. A carefully planned trust holds a number of benefits, such as ensuring that ex-partners and spouses do not to get access to funds and assets, as well as making sure your wealth is distributed exactly the way you want. You can also stipulate certain terms of the payments, such as only designating specific amounts to children and grandchildren at certain ages if they are deemed too irresponsible to handle large sums of money at a young age.
Gifting
You can gift certain sums of money to your heirs (up to a certain amount) without it annoyingly being subjected to tax. This ensures your heirs can keep more of the money without having to pay tax to the government.
Friendly, professional advice on NJ inheritance tax
New Jersey is one of only a few states that impose both an inheritance tax and a state estate tax. The NJ inheritance tax applies to anyone who lived or owned property in New Jersey and leaves the property to someone who isn’t a close relative. The tax rates are different in each circumstance because it is influenced by how closely the deceased and the person inheriting the property are related.
Leading law firm, SCC Legal, has an in-house specialist who can help you ensure that more of your estate goes to your heirs instead of the government. Frank R. Campisano is an experienced New Jersey elder law and employment law attorney. Frank is passionate about helping families and the elderly and he specializes in estate planning, will and trust administration and every area of elder law planning and preparation.
Contact us today for help, we look forward to hearing from you.